Navigation

What will I study?

Overview

As a student in the Graduate Diploma in Legal Studies, you can choose from almost all subjects available in the Melbourne Law Masters program, allowing you to tailor the diploma to suit your professional aspirations and personal interests.

Course structure

Students must complete four subjects from those available in the Melbourne Law Masters program (excluding Fundamentals of the Common Law, International Legal Internship and the Minor Thesis).

Subject timing and format

The Melbourne Law Masters program has been designed around the busy schedules of working professionals. Subjects are offered from February to December each year.

Most subjects are taught intensively, giving you the opportunity to immerse yourself in the subject content. Intensive subjects are typically taught over five days, either from Monday–Friday or Wednesday–Tuesday, excluding the weekend. This intensive format enables students from interstate or overseas to fly to Melbourne to attend class. Semester-length subjects are generally taught for two hours in the evening each week during the semester.

Subjects are taught in an interactive seminar style and class sizes normally range from 20 to 30 students.

Online subjects

Duration

As a student, you will need to enrol in at least one subject per semester and will have a maximum of two years to complete the course, including any leave of absence.

Sample course plan

View some sample course plans to help you select subjects that will meet the requirements for this diploma.

Sample course plan - 6 months full time

KEY

Elective

6 months

Total

50 Points

Month 1

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Month 2

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Month 3

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Month 4

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Sample course plan - 1 year part time

KEY

Elective

Year 1

Total

50 Points

Month 1

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Month 2

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Month 3

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Month 4

12.5 Points

Elective

12.5 Points

Explore this course

Explore the subjects you could choose as part of this diploma.

Asian Law

NameCredit points

Commercial Law in Asia12.5

Commercial Law in Asia

The emergence of Asia as an economic powerhouse is driving enormous interest in doing business in the region. This subject provides students with an opportunity to examine commercial law in an Asian context. Although parallels can be drawn between Asian jurisdictions in terms of their economic and legal development, their commercial law systems are too diverse to be treated uniformly. Instead, the focus is on analysing key legal aspects of doing business in Asia – including contracts, business entities, international trade, competition law, dispute resolution and the role of lawyers – by reference to systems and case studies in various Asian jurisdictions. Singapore and Australia will be used as reference jurisdictions. The lecturer previously worked as a lawyer and academic in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore and has written extensively on specific Asian business law topics.

Principal topics include:

Introduction to economic, political and cultural context of Asian laws

Commercial contracts

Business entities

Foreign investment

Overview of World Trade Organization and international trade regulation

Constitutionalism after Empire

This subject seeks to provide an overview of the theory and practice of constitutionalism in four countries in South and South East Asia: India, Indonesia, Singapore and Sri Lanka. Two of these are among the largest, most pluralistic nations in the world, while the remaining two are small island states. All four nations experienced long periods of colonial rule, which continues to have a decisive impact on their post-colonial legal and constitutional orders. The experience of colonialism contrasts quite starkly from those nations which were settler colonies, and this is an important focus of the course. In each of these nations, discussions about constitutionalism have become enmeshed within larger societal debates about economic development, cultural values, and human rights. The subject instructor has first-hand experience of research and teaching constitutional law in two of the four jurisdictions.

Principal topics include:

Brief overview of the field of comparative constitutionalism, and methodological approaches to the discipline

A broad introduction to the four jurisdictions, covering national histories, and their economic, social and political dimensions

A focus on the colonial experience in the four jurisdictions and the nature of the colonial economy, and its politics

The process of decolonization and the constitutional politics that was engendered as a result

An examination of the post-colonial Constitutions adopted in these countries, with an emphasis on rights provisions

Broad overview of post-colonial trajectories of the four jurisdictions, and their assessments by scholars

The policies of economic development that were followed and the impact on constitutional politics

Investment Deals and Disputes in Asia

In this subject, students will act as lawyers advising an international investor in a hypothetical investment project in a developing Asian jurisdiction (based on real life experience of the subject coordinator). Students must identify the legal risks and potential disputes in this developing environment and advise ways to mitigate such risks and avoid or resolve disputes. Students will study relevant laws, draft contractual documents, analyse legal issues, give advice, negotiate with the local government, project finance lenders and other parties and bring the deal to closure. Students are also involved in a dispute scenario arising out of the transaction. After the subject, students are expected to have an overview of the key risks and potential disputes in investment deals in developing Asian systems and ways to mitigate such risks through negotiation and documentation. Students can also research more deeply into particular legal issues such as expropriation, change in law, currency conversion or performance by state-owned companies and dispute resolution. Throughout the subject, students will study different areas of law such as investment, administrative, conflict of laws and international dispute resolution.

Principal topics include:

General overview of risks and potential disputes for investors

Risks of expropriation

Risks of illegality

Performance by state-owned enterprises

Currency conversion

Permits and regulatory approvals

Choice of law, dispute resolution and the arbitration process

Negotiating with local counterparties and international project finance lenders

Islamic Law and Politics in Asia

Islam does not, in theory, recognise a distinction between religion and law because for Muslims both are derived from their god‘s revealed message. The result is the inevitable tension between Islamic beliefs and the modern (secular) nation state that lies at the heart of the politics of Islam in South-East Asia. It has become the subject of major global controversies and conflicts in recent decades, as religious and political leaders compete with, and – in most cases – accommodate, each other. This tension, and the legal, political and social controversies that result from it, are the focus of this subject, which is based on selected comparative case studies of efforts to achieve legal Islamisation from a range of countries in Australia’s region. Teaching is led by a scholar who has conducted extensive fieldwork across South-East Asia and worked closely with Islamic legal institutions in the region. He is supported by guest lecturers specialising on South-East Asia, who will bring their own perspectives to class discussions.

This subject examines the relationship between the modern nation state and Islam in Asia, focusing on the 240 million Muslims in Australia’s South-East Asian neighbourhood.

Principal topics include:

How the original Arabic-derived legal thought has been adapted in new Asian homelands

The essential position of Islamic legal traditions as an alternative authority to the contemporary nation state

Current political and religious controversies arising in South-East Asia. These will be selected from a range that may include:

Banking and Finance

NameCredit points

Advanced Payment Devices and Fintech12.5

Advanced Payment Devices and Fintech

Payment systems around the globe have gone through tremendous changes and developments in the last decade. The technological and multimedia developments, recent financial crises, commercial changes and financial markets globalisation have all led to the emergence of new advanced payment devices coupled with a rapid rise in non-cash payment transactions. Fintech companies have been quick to follow this trend while striving to enhance digital payments. As payment transactions are a key component in any modern financial system, policy makers, courts and legal practitioners are now facing more challenges than ever before.

The subject deals with the law and practice of payment devices, focusing on the most recent changes and advanced innovations in the payment market. It is designed to provide students with unique knowledge of one of the building blocks of commercial and financial markets from a comparative and global perspective. In the course of studies we will analyse the main payment devices and innovative Fintech payments that are being used these days in Australia and other jurisdictions, while focusing on policy considerations, current legal frameworks, scholarly theories and business practices.

Financial Services Law

This subject is concerned with the regulation of financial intermediaries, including financial product issuers, broker/dealers, fund managers, custodians, financial planners and investment advisers. Orthodox approaches to the regulation of financial intermediaries have been under significant challenge since the Global Financial Crisis, with more to come. The subject combines a thorough technical grounding in the current law governing the provision of financial services to retail and wholesale clients in Australia with broader perspective on likely future directions in financial services regulation. The lecturer is a former Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) Regional Commissioner and one of Australia’s leading experts in the areas of funds management law and financial services regulation

This subject examines the regulation of financial services providers and the legal dimensions of their relationship with their clients. In particular, it deals directly with relevant parts of Chapter 7 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and the general law relating to brokers, dealers and financial advisers. It also covers the related topic of financial product disclosure.

Hedge Funds and Private Equity Funds

Hedge funds and private equity funds involve the allocation and investment of trillions of dollars, ultimately in a wide range of financial instruments and numerous operating companies across a variety of industry sectors. In recent years, managers of these ‘alternative investment funds’ have become subject to heightened scrutiny from regulators and the media. This subject provides an opportunity to learn in detail about the structuring and operation of hedge funds and private equity funds, providing students with an advanced and specialised knowledge in the relevant areas of law, and will examine recent developments in these areas.

International Financial System

In the wake of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008, the visibility of finance and financial regulation has increased dramatically. This subject will provide an overview of the global financial system and international efforts to build structures to support its proper functioning. Taking an integrative approach, the subject will look at the evolution of the global financial system, its structure and regulation. In doing so, it will analyse financial crises, especially the GFC, and responses to it, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Principal topics include:

The historical evolution of the international financial markets from Bretton Woods to the present

Costs and benefits of internationalisation and globalisation of finance

International debt and derivatives markets

International prudential regulation and capital adequacy

The rise of emerging markets and their integration into the global financial system

Major international financial crises, their causes and implications

Regulatory responses to financial crises and mechanisms for crisis resolution

The international financial architecture and its evolution

The impact of technology on global finance and its regulation: FinTech and RegTech.

International Financial Transactions

The purpose of this subject is to give students an advanced and integrated understanding of the legal issues that arise in international financial transactions. This is achieved by looking at the principal transactions, analysing the ways in which they are structured and implemented, and identifying relevant legal issues. This subject provides students with an insight into cross-border transactions and the role of international finance lawyers. It is therefore of particular interest to lawyers practising or seeking to practise law in this area and also to lawyers and bankers in commercial and investment banks.

Principal topics include:

The regulation of international finance

Financing options: bank financing versus capital markets financing

Debt capital markets

Syndicated lending

Techniques of loan sales: novation, assignment and participation

Legal issues, including insolvency, security, the use of trusts, contractual rights and governing law

International Lending

This subject involves the study and analysis of the structure, purpose and key provisions of cross border lending documentation, including large market standard syndicated credit agreements (governed by New York or English law). Students will focus on anticipating potential concerns and tensions in the negotiation process and will have the chance to review and study all the agreements and documents such as the credit agreement, other ancillary documents, schedules and deliveries that they will encounter in practice. Students will also study the structure and standard documents used in the cross-border repo market, one of the most important international capital markets.

Christian Johnson is the Dean and Professor of Law at Widener Commonwealth Law School in the United States. Dean Johnson has worked for large international law firms in New York and Chicago. In addition to teaching previously at Melbourne, he has taught lending and finance documentation to lawyers and bankers in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. Professor Johnson has his JD from Columbia Law School and is a CPA.

Principal topics include:

Study of the key interbank credit markets

Analysis of the various structures and purposes of different cross-border lending transactions

Discuss the key differences between New York and English law in lending transactions

Review of the key provisions and clauses found in cross-border lending documentation

Study of the key clauses found in New York/English guarantees

Analysis of the key legal, credit and business issues in repo transactions.

International Sustainable Finance

Is sustainable finance the answer to climate change, poverty and inequality? The purpose of this subject is to immerse students in sustainable finance in international practice, from micro-finance to green bonds, renewable energy and refugee financing. Across these markets, key legal concepts, structural features and documentation are covered in detail. By engaging in-depth, through term sheet negotiations, the students jointly develop the skills to assess, prioritise, challenge and negotiate these transactions.

The subject coordinator draws on his own experience in global sustainable finance, and invites experts from international law firms and consultant, to help you become ‘more than a lawyer’.

This innovative subject will combine classroom teaching with online learning. Students will be expected to attend four days in class and participate in online learning prior to the subject being taught.

Principal topics include:

The Sustainable Development Goals, their evolving regulatory framework, their implementation by banks, funds and corporates in international practice

Development Finance, the actors and the law, covering such diverse issues as sanctions law, immunities and aspects of state aid, as well as environmental and social law in financial transactions

Understanding the structural features of international financial transactions with a focus on sustainability

Inclusive finance, through microfinance, gender finance and small and medium enterprise (SME) lending, and relevant regulation

Liability Insurance Law

Insurance is a cornerstone of effective risk transfer. It is often critical to the viability of commercial enterprises and transactions. However, insurance contracts and arrangements have become increasingly complex, and specialised knowledge is required to understand their operation and limitations. This subject will provide an in-depth understanding of liability insurance, which indemnifies insureds against liability to third parties, and comprises a large part of the insurance market. It will examine the roles and obligations of participants in the insurance industry, different types of liability insurance, key principles of the common law regarding insurance, and legislative intervention, especially the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth), including recent amendments to the Act. The lecturers are barristers specialising in insurance law, who for many years have represented and advised both Australian and overseas insurers.

Principal topics include:

The structure and operation of contracts of liability insurance, and the main forms of liability insurance, including professional indemnity insurance public and products liability insurance, and directors’ and officers’ insurance

Communications Law

NameCredit points

Artificial Intelligence and the Law12.5

Artificial Intelligence and the Law

Historically a computer was “programmed” by a human utilising a precise set of instructions. Within this paradigm the computer was able to “process” information “fed” to it and produce a particular output based on such programming and information.

The human input was clear and transparent. As artificial intelligence (AI) has evolved in concert with the internet, cloud computing, big data gathering, data storage and data processing capabilities and the ubiquitous uptake of interactive smartphones and other “smart” devices, the relationship between the computer and direct and immediate human stewardship or control of outputs has become less readily identifiable. In turn this has given rise to significant legal issues.

There are substantial legal implications of AI which require ongoing, flexible and informed responses from lawyers and legal policy makers. This subject seeks to inform practicing lawyers, legal policy makers and non-lawyers in respect of those issues and how they might be dealt with.

Principal topics include:

Introduction to AI. What is AI? Where is AI headed?

The legal issues raised by AI.

Overview of current AI legal reviews underway in the USA, EU and UK and Australia’s response to these reviews

Intellectual property issues raised by AI

Criminal liability in respect of AI

Civil legal liability – examination of who is (or should be) responsible/liable for AI caused loss and harm.

Mandatory insurance schemes for loss or damage caused by autonomous robots or AI

The legal regimes governing use of AI in security, law enforcement and military contexts

Entertainment Law

This subject examines some legal aspects of a modern entertainment industry – in particular, contractual arrangements and intellectual property rights, as well as publicity and privacy rights. Particular reference will be made to the United States, home of the largest entertainment industry in the world, and Australia, which of course has its own important entertainment industry, but other countries will also be considered. The focus will be both on the written law (with an emphasis on legal development and policy) and the law as it is practised, with the latter part of the course devoted to a contract negotiation exercise. Cases and examples will mostly come from the fields of music, book publishing, the visual and performing arts and live theatre.

Principal topics include:

The entertainment industry and measures of social value; stakeholders within and outside the industry; need for law; range of relevant laws

Contracting in the entertainment industry: licensing, joint ventures, examples of contracts in use (such as book publishing, music touring, character merchandising), and processes and strategies adopted in negotiation

Expansion of rights: technological developments, sui generis or incremental responses, United States and Anglo-Australian approaches

Privacy and related issues: implications for industry practice and entertainers

Practical exercises on negotiation and drafting book and merchandising contracts (explored in a workshop environment).

New Media and Communications

The internet has given rise to new modes of communication. Services such as Netflix, Facebook and Google pose significant challenges for traditional models of communications regulation. At present, traditional media are arguably among the most heavily regulated sectors of the Australian economy, yet new media services go largely unregulated. This subject examines the conflict between traditional regulation of old and new media. Australia’s current regulatory arrangements arose in the 1990s and reflect the structure of the electronic communications industries at that time – focusing on the separate and highly prescriptive regulation of broadcasting and telecommunications. The current regulatory framework is fragmented and complex, and covers not only technical issues but also sector-specific competition, content and ownership rules. Since the 1990s, however, the communications environment in Australia has undergone a period of rapid and profound change. The emergence and ubiquitous adoption of the internet as a mass communications system has provided new opportunities for Australian publishers and audiences by dismantling traditional technological, economic and regulatory barriers to entry. From national security to sport, this revolution in communications has profound policy issues for national regulation in a global communications environment.

Principal topics include:

What is communications law? (including different regulatory approaches)

Regulation of communications services, including radio and television services

Australian content rules

Control and ownership of broadcasting and communications enterprises

Digital broadcasting law and regulation

Pay TV and the anti-siphoning regime

Competition in telecommunications (including regulation of anti-competitive practices, NBNCo and the structural separation of Telstra)

Interconnection law and policy

Spectrum allocation (including licensing and spectrum auctions)

Consumer protection issues

Regulation of internet content and filtering

Multi-channelling of free-to-air TV services

Regulation of new services and technologies, including convergence of media and Australian content requirements.

Privacy Law

Privacy has been valued for centuries but now there is a resurgent interest in its protection as a result of new technologies, changing social norms and a rise of markets focused on the commodity value of information. Overlapping with the resurgent interest in privacy is a related concern about the management of data flows, especially on the part of government agencies and business organisations. The legal frameworks that deal with privacy and data protection have a long history but are coming under pressure to adapt to a more complex modern environment.

Privacy and data protection experts Professor Megan Richardson and Karin Clark explore these issues. They pay particular attention to the scope and nature of privacy protection as well as appropriate limits and exceptions, the ongoing pressures for law reform, and the practical operation of privacy and data protection laws in Australia and comparable jurisdictions.

Principal topics include:

What is privacy?

Conceptual and legal definitional issues

International and comparative privacy and data protection regimes

Protection of privacy in general law in Australia and comparable jurisdictions

The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth): regulation of personal information held by the private and public sectors

Competition and Consumer Law

NameCredit points

Asian Competition Policy and Law12.5

Asian Competition Policy and Law

This subject will provide valuable in-depth insights into the political economy surrounding competition policy, law and enforcement in the Asia-Pacific region. Concentrating on the experience of key Asian jurisdictions including Japan, China, Philippines, Singapore and India, students will learn about the major features of the law and institutions in this region, the extent to which the regimes in the region conform to prevailing global competition norms, and the challenges facing practitioners and enforcement agencies in the Asia-Pacific. Relevant examples will also be drawn from other Asian jurisdictions such as Indonesia, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Highlights of the subject include:

Critical examination of the approaches taken to the design of competition agencies and application of competition laws in the Asia-Pacific region

Exploration of the political economy of competition law, using experiences in the Asia-Pacific region as case studies

Insights and perspectives from leading stakeholders such as competition authority officials and practitioners to assist students in developing a sophisticated appreciation of the issues facing the development and practice of competition law in the Asia Pacific region.

Australian Consumer Law

Australia has a detailed and comprehensive consumer protection regime dealing with the supply of goods and services, including financial products, to consumers. Primary legislation is the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), found in Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth); equivalent provisions in the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cth) (ASIC Act) applying to financial services and products; and, for consumer credit, the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (NCCP Act). This subject provides students with a detailed knowledge of key features of the Australian Consumer Law and of the common law principles and policy imperatives that underpin it. The lecturers include one of the Law School’s private lawyers with specialist expertise in consumer law, and a leading practitioner in this field of law.

Cartels

Cartel conduct is regarded as anathema to competitive markets and consumer welfare. Such conduct encompasses various forms of collusion or collaboration between competitors, the most serious of which involve fixing prices, diving markets, restricting output and rigging bids. These categories of collusion have been shown to raise prices, reduce quality and choice, and stifle business responsiveness and innovation. They are also hard to detect, prosecute and deter. Tougher anti-cartel laws and sanctions have been a high priority for competition authorities for at least the last decade. While there is a high degree of consensus around the world as to the core tenets of the prohibitions applicable to serious cartel conduct, there is a vigorous discourse amongst authorities, practitioners, business and academics regarding the most effective approaches to sanctioning and enforcement.

At the same time, not all agreements between business rivals are anti-competitive or detrimental to consumer welfare. Some, such as joint ventures or distribution agreements, may be driven by efficiencies or may be welfare-enhancing in other ways. Competition laws and their enforcement therefore need to distinguish between different types of conduct involving competitors based on their economic rationale and likely effects.

This subject refreshes and expands understanding of the economic principles relevant to collusion (or horizontal restraints) that were introduced in the first subject in the course (Foundations: Competition Law & Economics). Students examine critically and in-depth the main prohibitions and exemptions or defences that apply to cartel conduct and other types of collaboration between competitors. They explore who should be held liable for such conduct (companies and/or individuals) and what approaches are or should be taken to sanctioning (administrative and/or criminal). Finally, students explore and assess the effectiveness of the policies and tools that competition authorities deploy in detecting, prosecuting and deterring cartels, as well as learn about and analyse the vigorous debates that relate to private actions for damages arising out of such conduct.

Highlights of the subject include:

Critical examination of the approaches taken to the design and application of cartel laws and sanctions, drawing on examples from different jurisdictions around the world;

Use of the rich body of theoretical and empirical research relating to cartel conduct as well as analysis of actual cases and competition authority policy documents and guidelines to aid this examination; and

Insights and perspectives from leading stakeholders such as competition authority officials and practitioners to assist students in grappling with the challenges posed by the design and enforcement of anti-cartel rules.

Competition and New Technologies

The high-tech sector represents an increasingly important part of the world economy and is challenging the boundaries of orthodox competition law rules and approaches. Many of the most significant cases adjudicated by competition authorities around the world involve high-tech corporations (Microsoft, Intel, Google, Apple, etc). The high-tech industry is highly dynamic and raises particularly complex issues that need to be addressed by competition lawyers. This subject will grapple with these issues at a sophisticated level so that students understand the complex legal and economic challenges raised by the new economy. The lecturer is one of the world’s leading experts in this field. He has been involved in some of the most significant high-tech cases as a partner in international law firms in Europe, as an expert witness in numerous arbitration and litigation proceedings, and as an academic, currently with posts at Tilburg University, George Mason University and University College London.

Principal topics include:

The role of innovation as a goal of competition law

The influence of dynamic efficiency in competition law rule design and application, including in the areas of market definition, merger review and exemptions

The intersection between competition law and intellectual property rights, specifically as it arises in the high-tech sector

The intersection between competition law, consumer protection and privacy law, specifically as it arises in the high-tech sector

Competition law issues in multi-sided markets, including, for instance, search engines and the internet economy

Competition law issues raised by disruptive business models, such as Uber and Airbnb

Major cases, including the United States and European Union Microsoft cases, the EU Qualcomm case, the US Apple e-book case and the EU Google case.

Competition in the Healthcare Industry

Governments strive to constrain runaway health care costs through competitive markets. This can be lucrative for private players and competition authorities are increasingly called upon to investigate commercial practices in the health care industry. The competition analysis must still take account of significant government and philanthropic service providers. Further, health care markets are susceptible to market failure due to information asymmetries, adverse selection, moral hazard and principal-agent problems. This subject explores the application of competition law to a broad range of such health care markets in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, with insights that will be generalisable to many other jurisdictions.

The teachers in the subject are from leading international law firm Jones Day and have many years of experience specialising in the application of competition law to the health care sector, advising clients and government agencies, and training government officials.

Principal topics include:

Introduction to competition law and economic concepts in the context of the healthcare industry

Competition Law in a Globalised World

This subject will examine in depth the implications of the transnational features and effects of mergers, unilateral conduct, cartels and other business activities for the design and enforcement of competition law and policy . Students will examine rules governing extraterritorial jurisdiction, discovery, recognition and enforcement of judgments, and extradition in the international competition law context. They will learn about the ways in which competition authorities cooperate with each other and the roles played by regional and international organisations and networks. The subject also canvasses the relationship between competition and trade policies, and the particular challenges facing small and developing economies in a globalised world.

Highlights of the subject include:

Critical examination of how tensions between considerations of national sovereignty and international comity arise in the competition law context

Exploration and critique of the ways in which governments and competition authorities are seeking to meet the enforcement challenges posed by anti-competitive conduct that has multi-jurisdictional effects

Consideration of the strategic opportunities and challenges for multinational business organisations in managing competition law risks

Special focus on the increasing significance of competition policy, law and enforcement in international trade and regulation and the implications for small and developing economies

Insights and perspectives from leading stakeholders such as competition authority officials and practitioners to assist students in grappling with the challenges posed by the design and application of competition policies and rules in cross-border settings

Consumer Protection

This subject will examine the policy objectives underpinning consumer protection laws, including the intersection between consumer and competition policies. Students will develop a clear understanding of the key areas of regulation, including various forms of misleading and deceptive conduct, unfair practices and contract terms regulation, consumer guarantees and warranties, and product liability and safety regulation. They will examine key enforcement tools and mechanisms for consumer redress, focusing particularly on the challenges posed by e-commerce, and explore the often complex institutional arrangements involving national and international bodies, as well as non-governmental organisations, in this field. This subject is international and comparative in its scope and draws on examples from a wide range of jurisdictions around the world, but with a particular focus on consumer policy, law and enforcement in the Asia-Pacific region.

Highlights of the subject include:

Critical examination of the policy objectives and priorities underpinning, and the approaches taken to the design and application of, consumer laws, including variations between developed and developing countries in this context

Case studies that illustrate the practical challenges associated with enforcing consumer laws, with particular emphasis on the issues that arise in the context of growing international trade and e-commerce

Insights and perspectives from leading stakeholders such as consumer enforcement authority officials, intergovernmental and nongovernmental officials and practitioners to assist students in developing a sophisticated appreciation of the issues facing the development and practice of consumer law and policy, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.

Foundations: Competition Law & Economics

Competition Law is an area of law with mixed legal-economic content. The central disciplinary underpinning of competition law is economics. It is therefore essential that those practising in this field, whether as legal advisors to business, competition authority staff, or members of tribunals or courts have a solid grounding in the economic theories, concepts and techniques that underpin the policy, law and enforcement in this field.

This foundational subject introduces students to the history and spread of competition law across the world over the last century and to the range of objectives, influenced by various economic schools of thought, that have informed its development in different places and at different times. It ensures that students are well-versed in core economic vocabulary, concepts and frameworks and the ways in which they are translated into categories of legal prohibitions and enforcement approaches, common to all competition systems.

The subject sets the foundation for the course, providing crucial groundwork that will equip students to confidently tackle the economic content of the remaining subjects in greater detail. While the subject includes material with basic numerical equations, examples and diagrams, it does not require students to have advanced mathematical or statistical background knowledge or skills.

Highlights of the subject include:

Practical application of economic concepts and techniques through problem-based learning activity; and

Expositions and insights from leading economists and practitioners on various aspects of economics and the role of economists in competition law and practice.

Internat and Comparative Competition Law

This subject will provide students with international and comparative insights into a field of growing significance to practitioners in Australia and the region. While the subject will focus on the federal antitrust law of the United States (‘US’) and the competition law of the European Union (‘EU’), we will examine also the extent to which these two regimes provide models for other regimes, with particular attention paid to the Anti-Monopoly Law of the People’s Republic of China ‘(PRC’). The subject will explore how competition laws are justified, and the extent to which different regimes converge and diverge, and the reasons for this. An understanding of the US and EU regimes will equip students to analyse the likely responses to anti-competitive actions in many other regimes, and the focus on China will be particularly useful to students within the Pacific region.

Principal topics will include:

The policy foundations of, and history of approaches to, antitrust law in the US and competition law in the EU

The structure of the two regimes, the role of competition authorities, and the role of public and private enforcement

Comparative analysis of the substantive laws relating to agreements and multi-lateral anti-competitive conduct (s 1 of the Sherman Act, and article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’))

Comparative analysis of the approach taken to cartels, with an examination in particular of differing enforcement methods (civil and criminal)

Comparative approaches to the treatment of oligopolies, with particular reference to the concept of ‘conspiracies’ in the US, and ‘concerted practices’ in the EU

Comparative approaches to the control of monopolisation and dominant firm abuse (s 2 of the Sherman Act and article 102 of the TFEU), with particular reference to pricing conduct (excessive, predatory and discriminatory pricing practices)

The development, structure, and application of competition law in the PRC, including a consideration of the challenges facing new regimes

Comparative approaches to merger control in the US, EU and PRC, with particular reference to the establishment of jurisdiction, the operation of the substantive test, and the application of remedies

Jurisdiction, extra-territoriality, and bi-lateral and multi-lateral cooperation mechanisms in the application of competition law

Mergers

This subject will provide students with an in-depth understanding of the legal rules and economic principles that underpin the review of mergers and acquisitions and the types of information and analyses used to assess the competitive effects of these transactions. Students will examine how ‘special’ cases, such as joint ventures, failing firms, strategic and minority stakes, and creeping acquisitions are dealt with, and will learn about the procedures used by competition authorities and the strategies employed by merger parties in the review context.

Highlights of the subject include:

Critical examination of the approaches taken to the design and application of merger laws, review processes and remedies, drawing on examples from different jurisdictions around the world;

Use of the rich body of theoretical and empirical research relating to mergers as well as analysis of actual cases and competition authority policy documents and guidelines to aid this examination; and

Insights and perspectives from leading stakeholders such as competition authority officials and practitioners to assist students in grappling with the challenges posed by the design and enforcement of merger rules and processes.

Unilateral Conduct

One of the means by which firms may behave anti-competitively is by engaging in unilateral conduct that damages the competitive process and consumer welfare. Such conduct may be described in various ways in different jurisdictions, including as monopolisation, abuse of dominance or misuse of market power. However, the rules that apply to it share a common aim, namely to target conduct by firms with market power that is likely to harm competition and reduce consumer welfare.

Anti-competitive unilateral conduct generally involves conduct by a firm that has substantial or monopoly/monopsony power in a market and uses that power to implement a strategy that is likely to harm competition. Debates and divergence between jurisdictions in relation to unilateral conduct relate to the level of power that should trigger legal prohibitions, the types of strategies that are likely to have anti-competitive effects and how such effects should be established and assessed. In recent years, such debates have focussed on conduct by large firms in the information technology sector.

This subject explores the approaches used by competition authorities to address anti-competitive unilateral conduct. Differences in approach between jurisdictions are critically analysed. Building on learning in previous subjects, the subject examines what is meant by unilateral market power and the conditions that enable unilateral power to be used to implement an anti-competitive strategy. Unilateral conduct that gives rise to a competition concern may take various forms, the most common categories of which are analysed in detail in this subject. Such categories include conduct involving refusals to supply and predatory pricing. However, a difficulty in addressing anti-competitive behaviour of this type is that it is not readily distinguishable from highly aggressive competition. Given this, various tests that have been used and the evidence relevant to making this distinction are examined. Seminal decisions by competition authorities and courts as well as industry case studies are used to provide insights into the competition analysis of unilateral conduct.

Highlights of the subject include:

Critical examination of the approaches taken to the design and application of unilateral conduct laws, drawing on examples from different jurisdictions around the world;

In-depth case studies of unilateral conduct in a range of industry sectors with a view to ensuring students can properly analyse the rationales for such conduct and assess their likely effects on competition; and

Insights and perspectives from leading stakeholders such as competition authority officials and practitioners to assist students in grappling with the challenges posed by the design and enforcement of unilateral conduct rules.

Construction Law

NameCredit points

Advanced Construction Law12.5

Advanced Construction Law

Advanced Construction Law is designed as a capstone subject, explicitly aimed at enhancing students’ ability to make a significant contribution to the ongoing development of construction law in Australia and overseas. The emphasis is on analysing and testing cutting-edge case law, commentary and other legal developments in the classroom and via research papers.

In addition to the core areas of time (including delay claims methodologies), workscope/variations, defective work and security, detailed treatment is given to extra-contractual remedies such as those under the Australian Consumer Law and those based on unjust enrichment and negligence.

Construction Contract Analysis, Drafting

This subject develops advanced skills in the drafting and analysis of construction contracts. It covers several standard forms of construction contract, including a Standards Australia contract and an International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) contract. The subject teaches best practice in plain English drafting techniques and provides ample opportunity for students to exercise and be tested on their drafting skills. Students will be given individual comments on their work during the subject.

The subject lecturer and highly respected guest lecturers bring to the classroom extensive practising and academic experience in construction contracts.

This subject is designed to give students a sound understanding of the law concerning express and implied terms and the interpretation of contracts. It is also designed to develop and enhance students’ abilities to draft, analyse and administer construction contracts at an advanced level. Close study and comparison of standard forms of construction contract is a major feature of the subject. So too is the development of individual drafting skills.

Principal topics include:

Techniques for contract drafting

Express and implied contractual terms

Contract interpretation and analysis

The ongoing debate within the industry as to the role and utility of standard-form contracts.

Construction Law

To provide valuable advice to clients in the construction industry, lawyers need an integrated understanding of the legal and technical aspects of this specialised area of practice. This subject is designed to build such an understanding and to expose students to a wide range of construction law-related topics in an interdisciplinary mode. Students will learn about the key legal principles that are specific to construction law (from project inception through to dispute avoidance and resolution) and their interaction with the technical underpinnings of construction practice. In addition to classroom discussion, students have the opportunity to see principles put into practice through construction site visits and detailed case studies.

The subject lecturers bring to the classroom a combined, multi-disciplinary experience of decades in advising clients in the construction industry

A range of topics is covered in an interdisciplinary mode, integrating a detailed case study and site visit. Such topics may include:

Construction Law and Projects in Asia

This subject provides a detailed overview of construction law, projects and practice in five representative Asian jurisdictions: the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong SAR, Singapore and South Korea. Through detailed explanation, analysis and case studies, students will gain an integrated and advanced understanding of the key features of each jurisdiction, both in isolation and in a comparative context. Students will develop their capacity to operate and advise in and across these jurisdictions as well as deriving lessons for application in their home jurisdiction.

Dr Arthur McInnis is the principal subject lecturer. He is the former head of the Construction Practice Group at Clifford Chance in Hong Kong. He has published extensively and lectured widely on construction topics throughout Asia

The subject provides a detailed introduction to construction law, projects and practice in five Asian jurisdictions, with reference to:

The size and importance of opportunities and trends in their construction sectors

Recent build-own-transfer, build-lease-transfer and design-build-finance-operate projects, and planned public-private partnerships in economic and social infrastructure

Their resource management, financing, innovation and competitiveness on a comparative basis in the development of their construction sectors in the wider Australasian building and projects market

Detailed case studies on construction, currently planned to include: the Beijing Metro No 4 Line and Mass Transit Railway (MTR) international projects; planning, financing, construction and appraisal of the Anhwa school project in Korea; recent NEC-procured pilot projects in Hong Kong; tendering, construction, operation and issues surrounding the Taiwan High Speed Rail project; and tendering, financing, construction and operation of the Singapore Sports Hub.

Construction Law in the Middle East

This subject will provide a detailed overview of construction law, projects and practice in four representative Middle Eastern jurisdictions: the United Arab Emirates (with a focus on Dubai and Abu Dhabi), Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Oman, with some further brief comparative analysis of Egypt, Iraq and Iran. Through detailed explanation, analysis and case studies, students will develop an advanced and integrated understanding of the key construction law-related features of each jurisdiction. The detailed treatment of both the aspects which are distinctive in each jurisdiction and those which are cross-cutting is designed to enhance the advanced knowledge and integrated understanding of students who already practice in one or more of these jurisdictions and those who are looking to expand their range of practice into them.

The subject coordinators, William Marshall, Jeremie Witt and Debbie Barbour, bring to the subject extensive experience as construction and project finance lawyers from the Middle East.

The subject will provide a detailed introduction to construction law, projects and practice in four Middle Eastern jurisdictions with reference to:

The size, importance of, opportunities and trends in their construction sectors

Their resource management, financing, innovation and competitiveness in the development of their construction sectors, with particular focus on non-oil and gas sectors, and also considering 'contractor financing' as a means of project financing and delivery

Detailed case studies on construction, which might include (subject to confirmation in the year of subject delivery) the Abu Dhabi International Airport project, planning and construction of the Dubai Metro project and the initial attempts to deliver under a PPP structure, the Dubai Creek canal extension and 'contractor financing', the construction of the Saudi Stock Exchange and the issues of contract risk allocation, the Doha Metro project, Qatar Airport developments and issues relevant to the Qatar 2022 World Cup, and Mussandam Gas Plant project, in Oman.

Construction Risk

Risk and insurance are at the heart of all construction projects, yet their role and detailed provisions are often misunderstood, leading to significant losses and disputation. The already-sophisticated contracting landscape has, in recent years, been made significantly more complicated by the introduction of proportionate liability reforms. This subject will examine these issues with particular emphasis on how risk can be managed to minimise losses.

The lecturers are expert navigators in relation to these complex issues. They have leading-edge expertise in advising on risk, security for performance and insurance in the construction context.

Principal topics include:

Identifying risk in a construction project and how various industry participants (including principals, contractors, designers, professional advisers, insurers, security providers, and statutory and government authorities) may bear responsibility

Philosophies and commercial drivers affecting risk allocation in construction contracts and consultancy agreements, and how these are reflected in standard forms

Insurance products available to the construction industry (including public liability, works insurance, professional indemnity workers’ compensation and domestic building insurance) and the law relating to them, including regulation by legislation, common law principles and treatment under standard-form construction contracts and consultancy agreements

Proportionate liability regimes (including Part IVAA of the Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic)) and their impact on contract risk allocation.

International Construction Law

Cross-border construction contracting, and the avoidance and conduct of disputes, has a distinctive character and content. Lawyers and industry professionals need to be familiar with the differences between legal systems and the impact of statutory law, the key issues in the international financing and procurement of projects, the range of standard form international contracts available for various delivery methodologies, and the options for, and methods of dealing with, dispute resolution, along with the intricacies associated with those processes in an international context.

Principal topics include:

Discussion of the key differences between common law and civil law, and how they impact on the practice of construction law in different jurisdictions

The role of statute law applicable to the construction site, such as security of payment and mechanics’ lien legislation

Key issues in the financing and delivery of international construction projects, including alternative financing such as PPP

Standard-form contracts for international construction projects (including the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) suite and variants promulgated by multilateral development banks)

The main distinctions of principle and practice between the prosecution, determination or resolution of construction disputes in different jurisdictions

An examination of international bodies dealing with the determination or resolution of international construction disputes

An introduction to the jurisdictional, applicable law and procedural framework for the prosecution, determination and enforcement of construction disputes through international arbitration

Identification and consideration of contractual and extra-contractual alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and dispute avoidance procedures (DAPs) in the context of international construction.

Managing Legal Risk in Construction

Construction industry personnel and their lawyers are increasingly aware of the need to anticipate the legal implications of communication and ‘issue management’ throughout the project life cycle. Therefore, this subject aims to equip industry professionals and lawyers with the skills necessary to identify and proactively manage legal risk during the procurement and delivery phases. Complementing other subjects within Melbourne Law School’s construction law program that examine legal risks and their management, this subject provides practical insights into key aspects of the legal/project interface, including tendering and contract preparation procedures that efficiently ‘document the deal’ and contract administration techniques that minimise disputation.

The subject lecturers are practising lawyers who have substantial expertise and experience in advising during the various phases of a project, enabling students to develop an advanced and critical understanding of this specialised area of law.

Principal topics include:

An exploration of the concept of legal risk and how it manifests in construction projects

Project inception, including project feasibility and financing

Procurement model selection and alternative contracting models and an analysis of the pillars of success in relation to each of the procurement models

An analysis of pre-tender documentation, including consortium and joint venture agreements; an analysis of tender documentation including expressions of interest and requests for tender; and an analysis of the considerations when responding to a request for tender

Legal risks to be managed during the pre-tender and tendering phase

Analysis of the key project risks and their allocation and adoption between a contractor and client under a construction contract, as well as an introduction to qualitative and quantitative risk assessment

Analysis of the key features of a construction contract and the negotiation positions available to a contractor and client in negotiating a construction contract (this will include consideration of alternative approaches and legal risks to be considered by contractors and clients in the negotiation of these obligations)

The interface between the project management and legal disciplines, including a consideration of the ethical dilemmas that confront construction professionals

Risk identification and mitigation strategies employed during the delivery phase and their role in avoiding unnecessary disputation

Administering (making and assessing) claims for time and cost under construction contracts

Managing sub-contract and interface risk (including a consideration of building information modelling (BIM))

Managing the ‘paper war’ during the delivery phase: gaining, keeping, sharing and losing privilege in communications on and off site

Managing defects to the works: reaching completion and post-completion issues

A consideration of the practicalities of construction dispute resolution.

Payment Matters in Construction Projects

Payment has always been at the heart of construction contracting, and payment disputes have been—and remain—at the centre of construction law case law. This subject aims to provide students with a detailed understanding of the contractual procedures for payment and associated issues such as set-off. Its major focus is upon the ‘security of payment’ reforms of recent years. This state and territory-based legislation was designed to simplify the payment stream and disputation yet, in practice, has spawned hundreds of court cases, further complicating the contracting landscape for construction projects. The lecturers are based in the two states that have been at the forefront of the reforms—Queensland and New South Wales—and are therefore well-placed to guide students through this area of law.

Principal topics include:

Payment processes under construction contracts, including treatment under standard forms and the impact of the security of payment legislation enacted in various jurisdictions

History and policy underpinnings of the security of payment legislation, including comparison of the regimes in Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand

Processes to resolve payment disputes, including those under security of payment legislation (with detailed consideration of bases for judicial review of such processes)

Associated issues, including set-off, securing payment to workers and subcontractors, and means of dealing with the consequences of late payment.

Planning and Building Sustainable Cities

The concepts of urban sustainability are driving the regulation of the built form of our increasingly large, complex and smart cities. The global sustainable development goals have also led urban regulators to embrace more participatory and innovative forms of governance for our society and economy.

This subject explores how those concepts apply in the regulation of planning and construction and the framework and governance for the development of smart, resilient and sustainable cities. In particular, it will focus on the role of municipal and state laws in achieving liveable communities.

The subject will cover the Environmentally Sustainable Development (ESD) Local Planning Policies and consider whether planning regulation in Victoria incorporates best practice in environmental assessment. It will explore the interesting tension between building and planning law and the respective contribution of each in driving sustainable outcomes.

Another component of this subject will follow the introduction of building information modelling (BIM) arising out of the architecture, engineering and construction management sectors. This topic offers a further but alternate perspective of shifting regulatory dynamics that pitch towards sustainability objectives, whether on built environment projects or across broad-scaled applications.

This subject has been designed for those interested in the intersection between planning and construction law and environmental law. The course includes guest lectures, visiting some of Melbourne’s iconic green buildings and assessing urban planning initiatives, such as the Queen Victoria Market Redevelopment, for their contribution to the development of Melbourne as a sustainable city.

Principal topics include:

Sustainability in the city; exploring new ideas on what sustainable development means in an urban setting, policy priorities for sustainability, ideas of new governance for sustainability, and new economic and legal models to achieve sustainability outcomes

Green building and climate change developments, directions and policy, including resilience and risk

Urban planning and sustainability, including the use and role of land-use planning laws and local governance to achieve improved sustainability features in the built urban environment, focusing on Victorian laws

The broad regulatory setting for green buildings and urban sustainability, including a sustainability analysis of the National Construction Code

Sustainability rating tools for energy efficiency and the regulation of green buildings, through voluntary and mandatory schemes, including GreenStar and BASIX, and a comparison of green rating and standard tools in Australia (NABERS), the United States (LEED) and the United Kingdom and Europe (BREEAM)

An introduction to building information modelling (BIM) relative to sustainability opportunities and challenges, from construction projects and local and international policy perspectives

An applied case study analysis of how integrated sustainable urban construction law works in practice.

Principles of Construction Law

This subject is designed for construction law students without prior legal training (Construction Law is for students who have a law degree). It provides an overview of the broad spread of the construction law curriculum, from the statutory and common law landscape through legal aspects of project procurement and contracting to dispute avoidance and resolution options. This subject also provides detailed treatment of legal issues specific to construction law such as variations, quality, time and payment. The seminar format is supplemented by exercises to develop students’ skills in contract preparation and writing legal hypotheticals, and includes sessions on construction law research tools and techniques.

Public Private Partnerships Law

Private sector involvement in the financing, delivery and operation of public infrastructure is nothing new; it is, however, constantly evolving. The public appetite for social and economic infrastructure is insatiable, yet must constantly be tempered by economic constraints. Alongside the increasingly sophisticated and internationalised market for funding and technical capacity, there has been in recent years a renewed focus upon the policy bases for public private partnerships (PPPs) by governments and the broader community. Navigating all this in its legal context is one of the great ongoing challenges faced by the construction industry and its legal advisers. This subject, taught by two leaders in the field who bring a wealth of experience to the classroom, is designed to equip students to respond to this challenge.

Principal topics include:

Historical perspectives on private involvement in the delivery of public infrastructure, how it has changed over time and lessons learnt

Approaches to the categorising of PPP projects, including the broad distinction between ‘economic’ and ‘social’ infrastructure

The dynamics of financing versus the fiscal responsibility of repayments and funding

Features specific to the structuring and procurement of projects within each of these categories, including fundamental aspects such as the need to secure an income stream in relation to economic infrastructure and the relevance of the distinction, in relation to social infrastructure, between delivery of physical infrastructure and delivery of services

Features specific to particular sectors within each of these categories (eg toll roads, power stations, water, health care, education and corrections)

The various policy frameworks in place in Australia (and leading international agencies) for evaluation and engagement of private sector involvement in public infrastructure delivery

Drivers that underpin the structuring, negotiation and delivery of PPP projects, including financing, probity and value for money (including public sector comparator mechanisms), competition, tax (including issues derived from Australia‘s federal structure as opposed to unitary systems in other countries) and construction risk.

Remedies in the Construction Context

Construction projects produce difficult legal issues. Practitioners need to be confident in their understanding of the remedies available under various causes of action. Construction law requires a sound knowledge of relevant case law and legislation concerning diverse matters, such as damages in contract, recovery in tort for pure economic loss, penalties (including liquidated damages), quantum meruit, remedies under the Australian Consumer Law and the grant of interlocutory injunctions.

In addition to the primary lecturer, this subject harnesses the specialist expertise of guest lecturers, including leading academic lawyers, legal practitioners and judges. Their combined experience draws not only on their rigorous understanding of black letter law, but also on extensive practising careers.

Residential Construction Law

Every year, about half of the value of construction activity in Australia relates to the building, conversion and renovation of dwellings. The law relating to this activity is complex and multi-layered, involving difficult policy questions and significant statutory and regulatory intervention impacting on millions of people throughout the community. Despite this, residential construction law has, until recently, received relatively little attention from the majority of construction law practitioners, and not just in Australia. This innovative subject, taught by Matthew Bell and Suzanne Kirton, seeks to address this deficiency and introduce students to an evolving area of construction law in a comparative context, with material from Australasia (including Victoria) and from other members of the common law family of legal systems. Practitioners will make a significant contribution as guest lecturers.

Principal topics include:

Legislation specifically applicable to residential construction

Legal protection for ‘consumers’ in relation to residential construction

Legal obligations undertaken by the seller in relation to the quality of a new residential building

Means by which an off-plan buyer of a new residential house or unit may be protected against the financial failure of a project party

Remedies in relation to defects in the structure or common parts of multi-unit developments

Rights of successors in title to enjoy the remedies against the developer or any other project party responsible for defects

The impact of limitation periods upon remedies for different categories of defects

The role of insurance in protecting home-owners against the costs of repairs or defects claims

The impact of mandatory or voluntary registration or accreditation systems for residential developers and suppliers of construction services

Specialised Construction Procurement Law

While ‘Construct Only’ and ‘Design and Construct’ delivery methodologies remain the most common form of construction procurement, principals and contractors increasingly are delivering construction projects via innovative procurement methodologies. This subject—designed to complement the existing infrastructure delivery subjects already offered within our program—provides students with a detailed knowledge of tendering, specialised forms of construction procurement and other key contract forms currently in use in the Australian construction and infrastructure market. This subject also provides an overview of the key legal and commercial issues affecting these procurement methods and specialised construction contracts.

The lecturer, Richard Wilkinson, is a construction lawyer and alumnus of the Master of Construction Law. In addition to bringing to the classroom his own extensive experience in construction procurement law, Richard harnesses the specialist expertise of leading construction practitioners as guest lecturers.

Corporate Law

NameCredit points

Accounting for Commercial Lawyers12.5

Accounting for Commercial Lawyers

This subject introduces the fundamentals of accounting and financial statement interpretation within the context of government and commercial environments. Commencing with an examination of the principal financial statements the subject navigates the nature and types of transactions undertaken by organisations and how these transactions are recorded and reported. In the second half of the semester the subject addresses the key techniques for deeply assessing the financial performance, funding capacity and solvency of organisations. Finally the subject concludes with an examination of the accounting policy choices organisations may use to present their financial statements in the best possible light.

Company Takeovers

Company takeovers are an integral part of stock markets in Australia and overseas. Their regulation seeks to deal with the often competing objectives of market efficiency and fairness to shareholders. This subject examines the laws and rules in the area, from both a theoretical and a practical point of view and deals with the key legal concepts and steps that occur in a typical takeover bid and takeover defence, illustrated by actual transactions. The lecturer is a practising takeover lawyer, textbook author and member of the Takeovers Panel—Australia’s takeover dispute resolution body—which helps ensure that the subject matter is topical and current.

Principal topics include:

The Eggleston principles

The 20% rule

Shareholding disclosures

Exempt acquisitions

Pre-bid activity

Scheme alternative

Bidder’s statements

Action during the bid

Defensive strategies

Target’s statements

Compulsory acquisition

Role of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Takeovers Panel

Corporate Equity Fundraising

A corporation that wishes to raise funds in Australia, either for a specific purpose or for general business purposes, can do so either by borrowing (creation of debt) or by offering securities (creation of equity). This subject is concerned with the regulation of offering securities. The fundamental premise of the regulation is that the offering corporation should provide all relevant information (mandatory disclosure) and investors should then decide whether to invest. The subject will examine the regulatory model, the rationale for the model and aspects of the model and other mechanisms (such as the role of securities exchanges) that may impact in a practical way on the offering. Globalisation means that offerings may be subject to requirements in a number of jurisdictions and so it will be important to consider whether the similarities and differences between jurisdictions are significant. The classes will involve a mix of lecture-style presentations and problem-solving worked on in small groups.

The subject will be of interest to those who work in a corporate advisory environment or who wish to do so

Principal topics include:

The disclosure principle

Debt and equity as alternatives

Different equity-raising alternatives

Outline of the regulatory situation

When is a disclosure document required?

Different types of disclosure documents

Content of disclosure documents

Liability for defective disclosure documents

Due diligence defence

Other defences

Restrictions on advertising and securities hawking

The role of the underwriter

The role of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)

Corporate Governance & Directors' Duties

Corporate governance is of national and international importance. This subject has a strong focus on the law relating to corporate governance, particularly the duties and responsibilities of company directors and other officers, primarily from an Australian perspective but also considering the approach taken in other jurisdictions. The director has been described in one court judgment as “an essential component of corporate governance” who is “placed at the apex of the structure of direction and management of a company”. The lecturer is the author of leading publications dealing with corporate governance, including the major Australian book on directors’ duties, and he has also been involved in a number of corporate governance reforms enacted by Parliament.

Principal topics include:

The concept of corporate governance

Overview of the current framework of corporate governance and the duties of directors and other officers

Who is subject to duties?

To whom are duties owed?

Duties to act with care and diligence, in the best interests of the company, and for a proper purpose

Duty to avoid conflicts of interest

Duty to prevent insolvent trading

Role of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in enforcing directors’ duties

Role of shareholders in corporate governance

Role of industry corporate governance guidelines and the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations.

Shareholders' Rights and Remedies

Shareholders’ rights and remedies—and how they interact with the rights and obligations of directors, officers and the company itself—are a critical part of the law and corporate governance of Australian companies. Shareholder activism is on the rise and increasingly, the corporate regulator (ASIC), class action litigation firms and shareholders themselves are focused on what shareholders’ rights and remedies are and how they should be observed and pursued. And they are a major focus of Australia’s corporate governance principles for publicly listed companies, and therefore for those responsible for running those companies.

This subject—taught by partners from King & Wood Mallesons and Judicial Registrar Matthews—will provide participants with a detailed knowledge of the rights and remedies available to shareholders under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and at common law, how they interact with the roles of directors and management of Australian companies, and what happens when things go wrong.

Principal topics include:

An overview of the division of power between the various organs of the modern corporation

What the current framework of corporate governance has to say about treatment of shareholders

Shareholders’ agreements

Shareholders’ rights including voting and access to corporate information

Dispute Resolution

NameCredit points

Advanced Evidence12.5

Advanced Evidence

In the preparation and conduct of litigation no area of law is more important than the law of evidence. Advanced Evidence aims to provide students with an enhanced understanding of the law of evidence. This subject focuses on key provisions of the uniform evidence legislation, which now operates in all Commonwealth, Victorian, New South Wales, Tasmanian, Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory courts, and primarily examines the law of evidence in the context of criminal proceedings, where it is is strictly applied. Students can expect to refresh, deepen and develop their understanding of the factual, legal and policy issues associated with the law of evidence and to learn to analyse the admissibility of evidence at an advanced level

This subject is primarily based on a detailed examination of those rules of evidence regarding admissibility that are of particular significance in trials, especially criminal trials.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Dispute resolution and problem-solving lie at the core of modern professional life for lawyers, business people and anyone who works with more than one other person. This subject provides an overview of the range of dispute resolution techniques used internationally. This subject differentiates the most prominent dispute resolution methods, including traditional litigation, arbitration (in its many forms, including international commercial arbitration negotiation) and mediation (also in its many forms, including partnering, mini-trials and dispute resolution coordinators). It also includes skills training in negotiation and mediation, designed to increase effectiveness in both resolving disputes and enhancing problem-solving abilities.

Principal topics include:

The nature and varieties of disputes, how they arise and how they are avoided

Business Negotiations and Deal-Making

This subject focuses on skills and strategies that are key to negotiating, swaying and influencing counterparties in business negotiations and deal-making. In this subject, skills will be developed by constantly improving as business negotiators by asking the right questions, framing issues, gaining lessons learned, defining success metrics and negotiating with others with different skill-sets, perceptions and backgrounds. The subject will have a particular focus on negotiations in cross-border settings. The teacher is a leading expert in negotiation training, having taught and researched at prestigious institutions such as Berkeley, Stanford and Harvard, and trained executives at some of the world’s largest companies. He will draw on both real-world transactional and academic experience in leading the subject.

Principal topics and skills include the following:

Understand why conflict arises between people and business organisations, within both a domestic and international context

Class Actions

Class actions have become an increasingly prominent feature of Australia’s litigation landscape. Some people think they enhance access to justice, offer an efficient way to deal with large numbers of claims and function as an effective regulatory tool, while others criticise them as improper ‘private’ regulation or as just another way for lawyers to become wealthy. Students will have the opportunity to critically evaluate these views. Law reform proposals will be considered, as will the development, present state and likely future directions of the law and practice of Australian class actions. While the focus will be on Australia, methods used in other countries to bring and manage group proceedings will be considered and compared. Students will have the opportunity to engage and debate with lecturers and guest lecturers with substantial academic, practice, judicial and international experience.

Principal topics include:

The origins of modern class action regimes in Australia

Comparisons of the federal and Victorian regimes with those in other Australian and overseas jurisdictions

The main stages of class action litigation

The roles of lawyers, judges, parties, litigation funders and regulators

Specific issues, including choosing a forum, defining the class, the role of the lead plaintiff, entrepreneurial lawyering, identifying and notifying class members, settlement and court approval

Comparing class actions with other procedures available for bringing and managing complex litigation

Securities class actions and the regulatory role of the class action

Funding and costs issues, including the role of commercial litigation funders.

Commercial Arbitration in Practice

This subject provides an outline of the UNCITRAL Model Law legislation and the LEADR & IAMA Rules and a detailed analysis of the procedures involved in the conduct of domestic commercial arbitration proceedings. It will provide lawyers involved in the conduct of such proceedings and practising arbitrators with an opportunity to develop a comprehensive understanding of all elements of the process. The subject includes consideration of the principles of procedural fairness, the law of evidence and their application to commercial arbitration proceedings. The subject will also include written exercises intended to develop skill in the process of decision-making and the writing of decisions and awards in arbitrations.

Principal topics include:

An introduction to the UNCITRAL Model Law legislation

A detailed analysis of procedural rules and their use in the course of proceedings

Current Issues in Civil Litigation

Civil litigation is experiencing unprecedented levels of reform. Legislative changes, court decisions, changes to court rules and economic pressures are changing the way litigation is practised across the common law world. The proper roles of parties, lawyers, judges and courts are under scrutiny and discussion. The focus of this subject is current and significant issues in civil litigation, with an emphasis on new and emerging developments.

Andrew Higgins is an Associate Professor in Civil Procedure at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, and a Fellow in Law at Mansfield College. He is also a practising barrister specialising in mass tort litigation and General Editor of Civil Justice Quarterly.

Bernie Quinn is a Queens Counsel at the Victorian Bar who practices in a wide range of areas including commercial law, public law and product liability law. He speaks Bahasa Indonesian and was an Associate to Justice Michael Kirby. The subject will include guest lecturers drawn from the judiciary and the profession.

Mediation in Practice

With a primary focus on experiential learning and interactive discussion, this subject will provide a practical guide to the use of mediation in resolving disputes and to the legal environment in which mediation takes place. The objectives of this subject are to identify where mediation sits among available dispute resolution processes; its distinguishing characteristics and advantages; the applicable legal environment; to learn to apply mediation principles and techniques in the resolution of disputes; and to explore topical issues in mediation, including different regimes applicable to the admissibility of evidence of communications within mediation.

The lecturers are lawyers who have led and been at the cutting-edge of developing mediation and other ADR techniques. They are nationally accredited mediators and also have substantial experience in teaching and training in this field.

Principal topics include:

Identifying the characteristics of different dispute resolution methods

Mediation: Principles and Practice

Mediation has become the likely forum for the resolution of most disputes – whether convened voluntarily, by contract, statute or court order – but its inherent confidentially makes it hard for outsiders to understand fully.

This subject will cover the majority of the material required for Accreditation under the National Mediator Accreditation Scheme (NMAS), but also recognise that mediation needs to be understood by all involved, not just future mediators. In light of this, it will examine the roles of solicitors and barristers, other advisers and experts, and the parties themselves. It will do this through teaching by Andrew Moffat, who regularly mediates commercial disputes in Melbourne and Sydney, supplemented by guest lecturers who fill these roles in mediations.

It also recognises that mediation is – and must maintain – a uniquely flexible process capable of very different approaches based on the context of the dispute. Guest lecturers who are expert practitioners in other dispute contexts will share their insights.

Students will develop a sophisticated understanding of current mediation theory and practice, and learn to put this learning into practice as mediators and mediation participants, through extensive involvement in simulations. Finally, students will learn about the mediation industry and the business and career elements of developing a mediation practice.

Successful completion of this subject, and a complete attendance record to all sessions, is expected to be credited for 60 per cent of National Mediator Accreditation Scheme training, under the auspices of the Resolution Institute, which will offer students the opportunity to study the remaining 40 per cent required for NMAS accreditation.

Negotiation and Dispute Resolution

This highly interactive subject will give students practice-relevant skills for negotiation and dispute resolution. Negotiating effectively involves being able to change the conversation, shifting from adversarial to collaborative approaches. The best negotiators are also skilled at structuring processes and listening beneath what is said. This program will introduce a proven framework for creating value and resolving disputes, informed by recent research and extensive practice. Using experiential approaches, case studies and simulations, participants will deepen their abilities to represent clients and negotiate across a range of practice contexts. Participants will have multiple opportunities to refine their negotiation and dispute management skills, and will leave with a series of practical tools for dealing with difficult negotiation behaviours and hard bargaining tactics in diverse settings. This subject will be useful for those working on a wide range of complex issues in a range of contexts including commercial, environmental, public policy and human rights.

Drawing on current interdisciplinary literature and case examples from practice, students will:

Learn a proven framework for dispute analysis and negotiation to address a range of disputes

Understand the dynamics of intractable disputes and a range of tools to address them

Heighten their awareness of personal strengths and weaknesses as a negotiator

Successful completion of the subject will expand participants’ abilities for complex issue analysis, intervention and follow-up as negotiators, representatives and facilitators in negotiation and dispute resolution processes. Students will learn valuable skills of integrative thinking and creativity through experiential exercises and their final papers.

Negotiation Skills

Irrespective of their speciality, lawyers must negotiate. Litigators resolve far more disputes through negotiation than by trial. Business lawyers in every domain negotiate on behalf of their clients. Public interest lawyers, in-house counsel, government lawyers, criminal lawyers, tort lawyers and commercial litigators all share the need to be effective negotiators. However few lawyers have any systematic understanding of why negotiations often fail or have suboptimal results, the dilemmas inherent in negotiations, or the characteristics of effective negotiators.

By combining theory and practice, this subject should improve students’ understanding of negotiation and effectiveness as negotiators. This subject should improve their ability to prepare for a negotiation, to engage others in joint problem-solving, and to select appropriate strategies when negotiations don’t go well. Above all, this subject will equip students to continue refining their skills as they gain more experience.

Florrie Darwin has taught negotiation skills to students, as well as a broad range of professionals, around the world.

Employment and Labour Relations Law

NameCredit points

Bargaining at Work12.5

Bargaining at Work

This subject investigates the legal regulation of workplace bargaining in Australia. With the requirement that bargaining be conducted in ‘good faith’ under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), this has become one of the most contested areas of federal labour regulation. The subject is informed by the historical, political and economic factors that have shaped the development of the law, as well as relevant international legal principles. While the focus of the subject is on the system regulating workplace bargaining under the Fair Work Act, other relevant areas of law are analysed, including the common law regulation of strikes and industrial action and the contract of employment. The special regulation of bargaining and industrial action in the building and construction industry is also examined.

Principal topics include:

The historical development of the law relating to workplace bargaining

Relevant international legal principles and Australia’s obligations in this respect

Common law regulation of strikes and industrial action

The system regulating workplace bargaining under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), including the conduct of bargaining and the taking of protected industrial action, and the role of trade unions

The form, function and content of registered workplace agreements

The relationship of workplace agreements to other means of regulating working conditions, including the contract of employment

The ‘general protections’ under the Fair Work Act for freedom of association and the exercise of ‘workplace rights’ in relation to bargaining

Special regulation of bargaining and industrial action in the building and construction industry.

Employment Contract Law

Employment contracts have been a major source of litigation in recent years, with some cases leading to very large payouts. This subject examines the evolving law of employment contracts, and other related kinds of personal work contracts. Drawing on recent cases as well as leading articles by Australian and international scholars, the lecturers consider several key questions. These include determining and varying contract terms, employer and employee duties, non-compete clauses, termination and damages. The subject also looks at the interaction between employment contracts and major statutes, such as the Australian Consumer Law and the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). The subject seeks to combine discussions of the practical realities of contracting with a broader analysis of the underlying assumptions in current law.

Principal topics include:

The scope of employment regulation: which work relationships are covered?

The regulation of independent contracting, such as agency relationships

Equality and Discrimination at Work

Discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace represent an overwhelming majority of total complaints made to anti-discrimination authorities. Equality and discrimination at work remain pressing concerns for employees, managers and, more broadly, for society. Achieving equality is elusive and, indeed, the very meaning of equality is highly contested.

This subject explores the legal meanings of equality, with a focus on the frameworks through which Australian parliaments have sought to address inequality, discrimination and harassment. It examines federal and state laws that deal with discrimination, including the four federal laws, the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic) and the adverse action provisions in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). Consideration is given to discrimination based on race, sex, disability, and pregnancy and family responsibilities. The lecturers in this subject combine many years of academic scholarship in this area, engagement in law reform debates and practical client-focused legal advice

This subject provides an examination of the development and current scope of Australian equality and discrimination law, as relevant in employment and work relationships. It will focus on federal and Victorian jurisdictions.

Principal topics include:

A study of the framework and key features of federal and state legislative provisions dealing with equality and discrimination in the employment context, including theEqual Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic), the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth), the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth), the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) and theAge Discrimination Act 2004 (Cth)

An examination of the general protection provisions in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), including redress for certain types of adverse action

Debates regarding the meaning of equality, discrimination and other contested concepts such as choice, especially as choice relates to carer responsibilities

The Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic), and its potential impact in the interpretation of the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act

Conciliation, dispute resolution and remedies

Alternative regulatory regimes, including the National Employment Standards, equal remuneration provisions under the Fair Work Act, contract law and occupational health and safety issues such as bullying

International Employment Law

As labour and capital markets transcend domestic borders, the objectives of labour law can no longer be confined solely to actions within the nation state. The purpose of this subject is two-fold. First, to identify the diverse components of international employment and labour law, the institutions, the claims and the methods for advancing social protection to workers worldwide. This enquiry spans beyond traditional instruments that are associated with labour law, and includes trade law and corporate social responsibility. It further seeks to embed the study of legal instruments in the broader economic and sociological debates on globalisation. The second goal is to critically assess how international developments affect domestic labour law with a particular focus on the European Union, the United States, China and India.

Principal topics include:

The importance of the concept of globalisation in understanding national systems of labour regulation

The composition, powers and functioning of international organisations that regulate labour internationally, including the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the European Union (EU)

The relevance of different theories of international regulation

The usefulness of a comparative approach to labour law, including consideration of the major models of labour regulation like the Wagner Model in the United States and Canada

The role of intergovernmental and corporate codes of conduct in securing international labour standards

The emerging challenges posed by the use of migrant, contingent and precarious workers in the global economy

The success of adopting a human rights approach to labour regulation in the face of changes to domestic and international labour law frameworks.

International Equality Law

Equality and discrimination law is continuing to increase in importance, but remains controversial. This subject examines international and comparative aspects of equality and discrimination law. The subject is not confined to, but will include a focus on labour and employment issues. Equality and discrimination issues will be examined at four levels: international law, transnational, state constitutional law, and state human rights law. A review of the content and operation of the major United Nations (UN) and International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions relevant to discrimination generally and to equality at work is directly relevant to Australian domestic law as these treaties provide a constitutional basis as well as content for much Australian anti-discrimination legislation. For comparison, an overview of the European Union (EU) system for regulating discrimination law will be included. The focus then shifts to comparative national law, with an examination of protection of equality and discrimination rights at constitutional and legislative levels in Australia and other countries that take different approaches: some or all of Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.

This subject provides a critical examination of the scope and operation of equality and discrimination law at international, transnational and national levels and utilises comparative doctrinal and policy analysis. While the major focus will be on work and employment, other areas will be considered where they cast light on the development of the law.

Principal topics include:

An introduction to the different roles played by equality and discrimination at different locations and levels of the legal system

Consideration of debates about the meaning of equality, discrimination and other contested concepts such as choice and responsibility

Analysis of the roles, framework and key features of international treaties and conventions relating to equality and discrimination in both general (human rights) and specific (ILO) contexts

Analysis of some of the key EU equality directives and their adoption in some Member States

An analysis of constitutional protection of equality rights in countries with different modes of protection, chosen from Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States

An examination of anti-discrimination and equality laws across several countries to contrast different approaches and conceptualisations of these rights, and also different social environments and barriers to achieving a more equal society

Consideration of the role(s) of law in relation to equality and discrimination, and the uneven progress in the countries analysed

Exploration of possible future directions for better protection of equality and discrimination rights.

Labour Standards and their Enforcement

This subject addresses the relevant provisions of the key federal statute governing minimum employment standards in Australia, the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), which is the centrepiece of Commonwealth statutory regulation of working conditions. The subject examines the mechanisms by which minimum wages, working hours regulation and leave entitlements are set and reviewed, as well as the function and content of these standards. This subject also addresses the important topic of how compliance with labour standards can be enforced and considers issues such as the role of the Fair Work Ombudsman, and the challenge of enforcement in the context of different business models, such as franchise networks.

This subject covers federal statutory regulation of minimum employment conditions in Australia. It addresses the relevant provisions of the key federal statute, the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).

Principal topics include:

The scope of the national system of labour regulation

The institutions that regulate labour standards and working conditions, including the Fair Work Commission and the Fair Work Ombudsman

The role and content of the National Employment Standards (NES) as a means of maintaining a safety net of fair working conditions

The form, function and content of modern awards as a mechanism for setting further minimum labour standards at an industry and sectoral level

The relationship of modern awards and the NES to other means of regulating working conditions, including the contract of employment and enterprise agreements

The legal mechanisms and sanctions relating to enforcement of minimum labour standards and working conditions by employees, unions and the Fair Work Ombudsman

The administrative sanctions available to the Fair Work Ombudsman

Emerging issues and innovative approaches in regulating and enforcing labour standards and working conditions, including protection of vulnerable workers such as interns, casual and part-time workers and outworkers, extra-territorial coverage of labour standards, and regulation of work/life balance.

Principles of Employment Law

Paid work is central to the lives of most adults. It not only provides an income but also is constitutive of their identities. For society at large, the organisation of paid work relationships is crucial because of the need to produce goods and services and to protect those engaged in production. Regulation of these work relationships by law is, therefore, important.

This subject provides a thematic overview of the legal regulation of work relationships in Australia in an industrial, social and political context. It examines how work relationships are regulated through statutory regimes as well as through contract law. A major focus of the subject is the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), which sets minimum employment conditions, regulates modern awards and workplace agreement-making, provides redress in relation to adverse action and also provides processes to deal with issues of bullying at work. Anti-discrimination law will also be examined.

This subject is designed to be of particular assistance to students without previous (or recent) legal study in this area. Principles of Employment Law is compulsory for students who do not have a law degree from a common law jurisdiction, and it is strongly recommended that this subject be taken before any other employment and labour relations law subjects. Principles of Employment Law is also recommended for students who have not studied an equivalent subject in their law degree, or who have not done so recently. Principles of Employment Law is ideal for students undertaking a masters in another specialisation, or a Master of Laws, who wish to study one subject in the field of employment and labour relations law.

Principal topics include:

The constitutional framework for Australian employment law

Statutory standards under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) including unfair dismissal, minimum wage rates, hours of work, leave, adverse action and right to request regimes

The regulation of employment rights and working conditions by modern awards and enterprise agreements under the Fair Work Act2009 (Cth)

Workplace Health and Safety

In 2010 all Australian governments publicly committed to implementing nationally uniform laws about workplace health and safety. This development is bringing to fruition a process that began 30 years ago. However, Victoria is one of two states that have not implemented the agreed national laws. Therefore this subject examines in detail the content of Victorian law, as well as the new national laws.

By referring to the existing state, territory and commonwealth body of law, this subject considers the operation of Victorian workplace health and safety law in its historical and industrial setting as well as the likely practical operation of the new regulatory regime. The lecturer is a barrister with extensive practical experience in running cases under workplace health and safety laws.

Principal topics include:

The problem of work-related injury and disease

The history of the legal regulation of health and safety at work

Nationally uniform workplace health and safety laws

Standard-setting under the Australian workplace health and safety statutes

State enforcement of the workplace health and safety legislation

Workers’ rights under the Australian workplace health and safety statutes

The anti-bullying jurisdiction of the Fair Work Commission

Workers’ compensation schemes in Australia

The rehabilitation of injured workers

The role and impact of the common law duty to provide a safe workplace.

Energy and Resources Law

NameCredit points

Energy and Resources Law in China12.5

Energy and Resources Law in China

This subject examines the legal framework governing natural resources and renewable energy in China, with particular focus on mineral deposits, living organisms, and climate resources (i.e., wind, sunlight and atmospheric moisture). The objective is to provide students with a practical understanding of this important area of economic regulation, and an appreciation of the broader normative considerations (i.e., efficiency and redistribution) that are applicable to similar issues elsewhere. This subject draws from the lecturer’s extensive academic scholarship on resources law, regulatory theory, and Chinese legal system.

Principal topics include:

The normative theoretical framework for assessing resources law, in particular the controversies and ambiguities surrounding the conceptions of economic efficiency and redistributive fairness

Energy Regulation and the Law

Adequate, reliable and sustainable supplies of energy are crucial to modern societies, and their assurance demands the close and continuous involvement of governments. This subject explains the challenges—affordability, security of supply, safety, control of monopoly, sustainability in an age of global warming—that the economic and technical characteristics of different energy sources present to governments in Australia, and analyses the regulatory tools that they have at their disposal for responding to such challenges. It shows how the law can function both as an essential vehicle for such regulation and as a constraint on its content. The lecturer is a leading international authority on oil and gas law and has published extensively in the field of regulation.

Principal topics include:

The nature of regulation, its development in Australia and its relationship with law

General explanations and justifications for regulation

The techniques of regulation

Regulatory issues posed by the supply of different types of energy:

Mineral energies: coal, petroleum and uranium

Network energies: electricity, gas

Renewable energies

The Australian federal environment for energy regulation. Two or more case studies of Australian energy regulation:

Electricity and gas: from state monopolies to regulated national markets

Energy Resources in Emerging Markets

This subject explores the legal and regulatory structures affecting foreign investors seeking to participate in the development of energy resources in so-called ‘emerging markets’, and in particular in the restructuring of formerly socialist economies. Russia will be used as an example of an emerging market presenting particular characteristics and problems that provide important insights into emerging markets elsewhere in the world.

The subject coordinator has conducted research on ‘emerging markets’ over many years, and has extensive practical experience as an adviser in these matters. His work is widely published in numerous books and journal articles.

International Mineral Law

The mining industry is international in character and many mining and exploration companies operate in multiple foreign jurisdictions. This subject examines the legal, fiscal and regulatory regimes that govern mineral exploration and production internationally, with a particular emphasis on exploration and mining in developing countries. It deals with the negotiation of mining development agreements with host governments, regulatory schemes and fiscal regimes, community agreements, principles of sustainability and international norms affecting the mining sector. The lecturer has extensive practical experience in mineral ventures in a number of different jurisdictions.

International Petroleum Transactions

This subject considers the legal issues and structure of transactions relating to the exploration, production and marketing of petroleum that, owing to its economic and strategic importance, is the most important commodity traded worldwide. This subject will give students a detailed understanding of how crude oil and gas are exploited and marketed worldwide. It will cover how countries establish sovereignty over petroleum resources and how host governments or their national (state-owned) oil companies contract with private companies to explore and develop oil and gas resources. This subject also reviews and analyses key contracts among petroleum companies, and contracts between petroleum companies and petroleum-services contractors, that facilitate exploration, development and marketing of petroleum. As petroleum is one of the most politically charged commodities, this subject will also consider extra-territorial anti-corruption law and political risk. In a broader sense, this subject will help students develop better analytical skills—especially the ability to critically evaluate contracts.

Major Project Delivery: Legal Interfaces

The delivery of major energy and resources projects is an organic process which involves multifaceted interactions with the law. In this subject, students will gain insights into the way that advising on such projects involves navigating an often-challenging intersection of construction and regulatory systems, drawing on aspects of property law, environmental law, native title, finance, banking and commercial law.

Students will also engage with the need for reform in major project delivery, with the cost of project delivery in Australia already prohibitive and globally uncompetitive.

The subject will examine how major energy and resources projects are defined, designed, structured and developed, the pressure points for successful and cost-efficient project delivery in Australia, and the areas where conflicts and disputes emerge and how they are managed.

Principal topics include:

Project scoping from feasibility to design, including examination of recent studies on procurement practices and a simulated workshop on feasibility models, risk analysis and front-end engineering and design (FEED)

Overview of regulatory approval frameworks for major project delivery in the energy and resources sector, including a case study-based discussion of the interaction of such frameworks with construction document development and management

Project delivery models and frameworks in the energy and resources sector

Examination of leading causes of project stress and failure, including the need for proactive forensic planning

Current approaches to dispute management in major project delivery, including exercises examining common problems encountered in drafting dispute resolution clauses in project documentation, as well as a discussion of contemporary and innovative approaches to dispute management and avoidance in major projects.

Mineral and Petroleum Law

Mineral and petroleum resources have shaped Australia’s history, economy, society and environment for more than 150 years and continue to do so. The exploitation of these resources involves governments as proprietors and regulators, together with private enterprise as explorers and developers. The complex relationship between governments and private enterprise provides the central theme of the subject. Australia’s federal system of government adds to the complexity of that relationship. The subject begins by identifying fundamental legal issues that occur in most countries in the exploration for and production of mineral and petroleum resources. It then examines the ways in which these issues are resolved in Australia, using statutory title regimes and government agreements. The effectiveness of the Australian approach to these matters is examined in the international context of legal arrangements employed for management of mineral and petroleum resources elsewhere in the world.

Project Finance

Project finance is the financing of major projects. It often takes the form of a financing arrangement under which the monies raised for a project are repaid primarily from the project’s cash flow, with the project’s assets held as collateral. It enables the sponsor of a project to arrange financing with no recourse, or limited recourse, to the sponsor’s balance sheet. Project finance is complex in view of the number of parties involved, the security that is taken over the project’s cash flow and assets, the nature of the rights that are exercised by the lenders in respect of the project generally and the cross-border character of stakeholders. Project finance lawyers need to have an in-depth understanding of both the legal issues that arise as well as the commercial and operational aspects of the project.

The lecturers are leading practitioners in this area and they introduce students to the key legal, contractual and structural issues concerning major projects and project finance, and analyse these issues in the context of a number of case studies in the mineral, energy and infrastructure sectors.

Resources Joint Ventures

The exploitation of mineral and petroleum resources involves substantial risk. The resources joint venture provides a commercial opportunity to manage this risk. It is a particular legal relationship: an association of persons (natural or corporate) to engage in a common undertaking to generate a product to be shared among the participants. Management of the undertaking is divided: the participants determine some matters by agreement at the outset of the relationship; the power to determine other matters is vested in a committee on which the participants are represented and entitled to vote; a manager (or operator) is appointed by the participants to conduct agreed activities, on their behalf, within the scope of the common undertaking (exploration, development production). This subject examines the legal issues involved in this complex relationship, together with ancillary transactions (such as farmouts). In doing so, it considers the capacity of the common law to respond to commercial imperatives. It also evaluates the effectiveness of legal documentation employed in establishing the joint venture relationship.

The lecturer, a former Dean of Melbourne Law School, has published extensively in the fields of energy and resources law and served as President of the Australian Mineral and Petroleum Law Association.

Environmental Law

NameCredit points

Biodiversity Law12.5

Biodiversity Law

Conservation biologists warn that we are in the midst of a great extinction crisis. Biodiversity Law is an emerging field, examining legal regimes designed to conserve Earth’s endangered forms of life. We will voyage to foreign intellectual lands – e.g. environmental ethics, conservation biology – and take a few real voyages to see biodiversity law in action. We will examine the nuts and bolts of Australian and foreign legal regimes with an attempt to discern most effective legal practices to conserve biodiversity, grounding our analyses in in-depth case studies. Our investigations will be framed by two overarching questions: What is the legal framework for preserving life on Earth? What should be the components of the legal framework for preserving life on Earth?

Principal topics will include:

A short primer on principles of environmental ethics and conservation biology and how these principles inform the practice of Biodiversity Law;

Understanding the threats to biodiversity the law must confront;

In-depth study of Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) to understand how this law interacts with Australian State and Territorial law to protect biodiversity;

Consideration of Australian court cases that have interpreted the EPBC’s (and other biodiversity protective legal) provisions as applied to threatened species and ecosystems;

Comparative studies of United States, South Africa, and other national legal approaches to, and court decisions on, biodiversity conservation;

Attention to Australian (and foreign) biodiversity facing particular challenges (Great Barrier Reef, isolated marsupial populations, cetaceans) and how the law is (or is not) meeting those challenges;

Analysis of the Convention on Biological Diversity,and other international treaties including how they are implemented in domestic law;

In-depth case study on global wildlife poaching and smuggling;

Discussion of “ownership” of biodiversity, including the rights that indigenous populations have to biodiversity;

Discussion of market mechanisms designed to incentivize biodiversity conservation;

Examination of non-legal means to preserve biodiversity;

Synthesis of best practices for how to preserve and steward life on Earth.

Climate Change Law

Climate change is a pressing environmental, economic and social problem. Global warming is predicted to have wide-ranging impacts, and it presents enormous challenges for conventional models of law and socio-economic governance due to its pervasive character, long-term effects and the need for dynamic change in many of the fundamental areas of life. This subject examines the challenges for law in driving that change, from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its associated Paris Agreement, to international trade and litigation, to federal and state legislative responses, through to local effects including on Indigenous peoples. The lecturer is active in research and advice in climate change law and governance in the international and domestic law spheres.

Principal topics include:

The scientific basis for global warming and physical impacts of climate change

The international legal framework, including the UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, Paris Agreement and associated international instruments

Social and cultural impacts and legal responses, such as human rights protection

The schemes for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).

The role of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in climate change governance, particularly with respect to renewable energy technologies and the disciplining of fossil fuel subsidies

The interaction of climate change regimes with other international law frameworks; eg World Heritage, refugee law and security

Disaster Law and Climate Adaptation

The frequency and severity of ‘natural’ disasters, like flood, cyclone and bushfire, and longer term phenomena, such as drought and sea level rise, will increase as a result of climate change; posing major threats to settlements, infrastructure, natural resources and biodiversity. This subject covers the multi-scalar legal response to disasters involving international treaties and soft-law instruments, national and regional regulation, and private law (torts and contract), and encompassing climate change adaptation, emergency management, environmental liability, insurance and human rights. It will examine approaches to prepare for, avoid or minimise disaster impacts, and to respond effectively and equitably post-event. Relevant case studies are drawn from Australia and various comparative jurisdictions regionally and internationally.

An overview of disasters and climate change impacts, focusing on predicted changes to the frequency, intensity and geographical occurrence of natural hazards, and impacts on human settlements

Examination of the types of public and private planning and legal mechanisms at the local, state, national and international scale relevant to disaster management

International agreements and soft law, with case studies of their application to recent disaster events (eg liability regimes for oil and gas disasters and mining incidents; funding mechanisms for disaster risk reduction; instruments for the protection of persons in disasters)

Emergency management and adaptation planning in Australia, with selected case studies covering: coastal hazards: NSW coastal management and land-use planning regimes; bushfire: Victorian land-use planning, emergency management and recovery, and relevant compensation law for the 2009 bushfires and fires in open cut coal mines in the La Trobe valley in 2015; Flood: statutory planning and insurance regimes in Queensland, and the response to the 2011 floods; Drought: emergency water allocation management in urban and rural areas in south-eastern Australia

Comparative case studies in developed and developing countries, evaluating the transferability of legal principles (eg responses to drought and water scarcity in the western United States and southern Africa; coastal adaptation planning instruments in the US and United Kingdom; and typhoon readiness in South East Asia).

Environmental Rights

With policy and law-makers under pressure to subordinate environmental concerns to short-term economic imperatives, environmental advocates are increasingly looking to human rights as a means of reinforcing the importance of environmental protection to human welfare. Domestic, regional and international human rights laws present a range of opportunities and challenges for addressing harms done to the environment. There are also a number of conceptual concerns with framing environmental issues in terms of human rights. Students will work as a class and in small groups to understand the relationship between human rights law and environmental protection at domestic, regional and international levels. The subject will provide insight into strategic aspects of human rights advocacy for the environment, using case studies to explore the roles of state and non-state actors in environmental protection and to consider a range of approaches in the different regions of the world. Resources drawing from academic, policy and advocacy material will be used to interrogate practical and critical perspectives on human rights law and environmental protection.

Principal topics include:

The relationship between human rights and the environment in theory and practice

Human rights that protect the environment, including general rights such as the rights to privacy, health and to information as well as specific rights ‘to’ and ‘of’ the environment

Domestic, regional and international governance of human rights in relation to the environment

Sustainable development and its relevance to issues of human rights and the environment in the different regions of the world

The implications of human rights law for indigenous peoples and environmental protection

The roles and responsibilities of non-state actors in relation to ‘environmental rights’, including environmental advocates and businesses

Channels for redress beyond formal legal mechanisms for people and for ‘nature’.

International Environmental Law

International environmental law is the field of public international law concerned with the protection of the natural environment, and those aspects of the built environment recognised as world cultural heritage. It is a vitally important branch of international law, seeking as it does to safeguard the environment on which humanity depends for its very existence. International environmental law seeks to integrate the activities of diverse actors—states, international organisations, businesses, communities and non-government organisations (NGOs) and uses a wide range of legal tools (including economic instruments and participatory mechanisms) to address pressing environmental concerns. This subject explores the critical governance and regulatory dimensions of international environmental law, as well as introducing you to cases and treaties that have been pivotal to the development of this area of international law. The lecturers in the subject are international environmental law experts, with both academic and practical experience in the field, which will be drawn into the delivery of a stimulating and relevant subject.

Principal topics include:

The need for international environmental law and its historical development

The principal institutions and actors involved in the creation, implementation and enforcement of international environmental law

The principal cases and treaties that have been influential in the development of international environmental law

Current issues of concern in international environmental law, including atmospheric pollution and climate change, the protection of the oceans, species protection and biodiversity, and international trade.

Politics of Transnational Regulation

From corporate self-regulation to multi-stakeholder certification, transnational private regulation is exploding. Multinational firms and powerful governments often succeed in exploiting the resulting overlaps and intersections amongst actors and institutions to bypass unattractive forums, shift decision-making to preferred arenas, shape outcomes in their favour and impose their desired rules on others. Marginalized equity-seeking actors such as workers, indigenous peoples, subsistence producers and industry-affected communities sometimes resist these efforts successfully. Rarely, they even exploit these overlaps and intersections to advance their own interests. Using real-world examples and cutting-edge interdisciplinary theory, the subject examines how powerful actors exploit transnational governance interactions in their favour and how these interactive dynamics can instead be harnessed to improve regulatory capacities, raise standards and empower weaker actors. The teacher heads the interdisciplinary Transnational Business Governance Interactions research network and is a leading scholar and practitioner of transnational private regulation.

Principal questions and topics to be addressed will include:

What is transnational private regulation? Definition, actors, institutions, processes, history, trends, examples and relation to domestic and international law

Water Law & Natural Resources Management

Water law and natural resources management are fundamental to human society, environmental protection and many aspects of economic productivity. Legal rules around water co-evolved with the development of many societies. Water is both necessary for life but also a source of conflict. This subject considers the international laws governing water, including principles addressing trans-jurisdictional water governance for major river systems. It canvasses emerging questions, such as whether there is a human right to water, and climate change impacts on water availability. It examines the development of common law rules around water allocation and water quality that retain an important role in water management. There is a major focus on indigenous water rights.

The general development of statutory-based water law, concentrating on the Australian federal and Victorian situation, provides the main case study of water law and governance. The subject examines the water law reforms leading to adoption of the national Water Act 2007, and covers the federal legislation, such as the development of environmental water regulation and water trading. It provides an examination of the Victorian water legislation, which explores catchment and natural resources management issues. The subject has a focus on groundwater and looks at impacts on groundwater due to mining and fracking. This subject covers urban water laws, with a focus on novel uses, such as water recycling and storm water capture.

Principal topics include:

International law and policy governing water, including examination of relevant treaties and conventions

Water rights: including human rights and cultural rights – especially those of Indigenous peoples

An overview of the current system of Australian statutory regimes for surface water and groundwater allocation and use

Australian national water and resource management reforms, including the National Water Initiative

The Water Act 2007 (Cth), including water trading and water planning

Environmental water regulation

Victorian water laws, including water authorities and governance models

Government Law

NameCredit points

Constitutional Rights and Freedoms12.5

Constitutional Rights and Freedoms

Constitutional government is limited government. Government is limited by the establishment of rules governing its institutions and by dividing power along federal lines. Equally important are those aspects of constitutions that identify specific limitations on government. These constitutional law provisions and judicially created doctrines are the focus of this course. Constitutional rights, freedoms and limitations have been the subject of many of the most important High Court cases of recent decades. The subject will provide a thematic and in-depth discussion of those cases, including cases on freedom of political communication, voting rights, separation of judicial power (and its effect on federal and state courts), intergovernmental immunities, freedom of interstate trade in a federation and the rule of law as a limitation on power.

This subject will therefore explain and critically analyse the key contemporary questions relating to these areas of constitutional law in the context of ongoing debates in comparable jurisdictions. It will help students understand the current complexity and anticipate future developments in the High Court.

Principal topics include:

The nature and extent of the ‘express limitations on power in the Australian Constitution including:

Freedom of religion

The right of trial by jury

Freedom of interstate trade

The nature and extent of the separation of judicial powers in the Australian Constitution including the significance of the separation of judicial power for federal and state courts and for charters of rights (like the Victorian Charter of Rights and Responsibilities)

The implication protecting representative and responsible government including the significance of the implication for voting rights, the financing of political campaigns and rights of protest in Australia

Key methodological issues arising in the judicial interpretation of limitations on power including the role of proportionality analysis.

Corruption: A Global Approach

From one of the earliest concerns of morality and political philosophy to the subject of the latest global treaty sponsored by the United Nations, corruption has had a fascinating role in human affairs. Corruption’s importance as a matter of law and policy has grown in recent decades, thanks to an increasing awareness of its devastating effects on development efforts, human rights, democracies, economies, and environmental protection efforts. Responding to that growing importance, this subject provides an overview of domestic, regional, and global approaches to corruption.

The domestic approaches examined in this subject include those undertaken by a sample of Latin American and Asian countries, as well as Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. The regional approaches targeted include those sponsored by the Organization of American States, the Asian Development Bank, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Council of Europe, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the World Bank. Finally, at the global level, this seminar covers the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).

Entering into force in 2005 and obtaining 183 States Parties by 2017, the UNCAC has taken strides in implementing a comprehensive and partially binding global approach to corruption. This subject explores the five pillars of that approach—international cooperation, preventative measures, criminalization and law enforcement measures, asset recovery, and technical assistance and information exchange—and their linkages to domestic and regional initiatives. A major question at this stage will be the UNCAC’s ability (or potential) to supplement or improve upon those pre-existing initiatives.

At each of its three levels of legal inquiry (domestic, regional, and global), this seminar examines questions of substantive law (what conduct is targeted), procedure (how are suspected violations of the law exposed and addressed), institutions (how is each legal framework administered and modified), and effectiveness (under a number of metrics). Notably, this subject addresses the advantages and criticisms of anti-corruption law in its many forms.

Although this subject relies primarily on legal analysis, it also encompasses economics, history, and political science. That interdisciplinarity enables the consideration of the broader questions that inform anti-corruption law. Those questions include: How are definitions and patterns of corruption changing over time? What effects does corruption have on development, businesses, local economies, and global capitalism? What effects does it have on human rights, democratization, elections, and lawmaking? What lessons have been learned about the effectiveness of different legal approaches to corruption? How could domestic, regional, and international anti-corruption initiatives be improved?

Principal topics include:

What is corruption? How is corruption defined by different legal regimes?

How does corruption manifest in distinct environments, including campaign and party finance, elections, lawmaking, law enforcement, government procurement, business, international development efforts, and banking and finance? What are corruption’s economic, political, and social effects?

What are the regulatory challenges involved in preventing, exposing, and punishing corruption in its distinct environments? To what extent have domestic, regional, and international legal regimes been successful in meeting those challenges?

How could those laws and institutions be improved? In particular, what are the main successes and shortcomings of the UN system for preventing and combatting corruption? What are its prospects for improvement?

What are the different roles that lawyers play in addressing corruption? What skill sets do they employ?

Current Issues in Administrative Law

This could not be a more interesting and important time to engage with some of the most challenging issues in administrative law. Australian administrative law has undergone rapid change in recent years. In significant respects it has diverged from the rest of the common law world, under the influence of the Australian Constitution. Some of the resulting doctrines are not yet in a settled state. At the same time, however, administrative law continues to play the critical role in mediating relations between people and the institutions of government that in Australia’s case is heightened by the absence of systemic arrangements for the legal protection of individual rights. The two lecturers in the subject bring a combination of practical and scholarly perspectives to bear on the selected topics, all of which are chosen for their contemporary relevance.

The subject will focus on key themes in Australian administrative law, which are likely to include:

Money, Law and Politics

Money in politics raises profound challenges for democracies across the world: billion-dollar American presidential elections have led United States being branded the 'best democracy money can buy'; in Indonesia, the tactics of ‘money politics’ are regularly decried; and in Australia, unregulated political spending in federal elections raise concerns about the fairness of such contests.

What should be the role of the law in regulating money in politics? What should be the principles to determine the content and the limits of such law? What should be the respective roles of the legislature, executive and the judiciary in shaping such laws? And what should be the institutional framework for ensuring compliance with legal obligations?

This subject will adopt a cross-national approach to examining these challenging questions. It will examine the experiences of a range of countries including those from the Commonwealth (eg Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom), Europe (eg France and Germany), South-East Asia (eg Indonesia) and the United States. Taught by two leading experts in this field, the subject will draw out the tensions and dilemmas in regulating money in politics.

Principal questions examined include:

What are the regulatory challenges of money in politics?

What standards and principles should apply to the regulation of such money? Do these standards and principles vary according to particular national contexts? Is it meaningful to speak of international standards or international ‘best practice’?

How should political donations and campaign expenditure be regulated?

How should public funding of campaigns and political parties be provided?

What should be in the institutional framework governing the regulation of money in politics? Which branch of government should have the power to enact such laws? What institutions (eg electoral commissions; anti-corruption commissions) should be responsible for effectively enforcing such regulation?

Multiculturalism and the State

Religious minorities in Western democracies are seeking legal accommodations, especially the freedom of maintaining an autonomous judiciary to handle internal family law matters. Drawing on the rich experience of countries where such accommodations were granted, the subject will inquire into the legitimacy and problems associated with such accommodations. In doing so, the subject will draw on modern theories of multiculturalism.

This highly topical subject deals with some of the most significant, challenging and contested issues in the legal systems of the world in the 21st century. It is likely to be of considerable interest to students from a wide range of jurisdictions and backgrounds.

Principal topics include:

Liberal multiculturalism, theory and practice

Group accommodations in a democracy

A survey of religious groups and illiberal practices

Traditional schemes of religious accommodations, with special reference to the Ottoman millet system

The reality of religious accommodations in Western democracies

The reality of religious accommodations in the Middle East, with special reference to Israel.

Public Law and Private Law

This topical subject deals with the interface between private law and public law in common law systems from the perspectives of history, doctrine, theory and practice. It will explore the traditional absence of such a division in the common law, and the reasons for this, as a basis for understanding the relevance of the distinction in the contemporary legal system. The subject will critically assess the distinction from a theoretical perspective, testing whether the idea of a distinction between public law and private law can withstand scrutiny. A range of cutting-edge doctrinal issues will be examined and placed in wider context. These include whether public law principles should extend to the activities of non-governmental entities such as private firms and charities; whether the law should recognise a special set of rules to regulate public contracts; whether public authorities should be governed by the ordinary law of tort or a set of special administrative liability principles; procedural divisions between public law and private law; the role of the public interest in private remedies and of private remedies in public law cases; and whether public law issues should be heard by specialist administrative courts. The subject should be of interest to lawyers working in any field in a common law legal system and to those trained in the different traditions of the civil law who are interested in better understanding the structures and assumptions of the common law.

Regulatory Policy and Practice

Regulation has become a permanent feature of the way in which contemporary democratic economies, including Australia, are governed. There are few spheres of economic activity that are not subject to some form of regulatory oversight and control. Daily news programs rarely pass without some mention of a significant regulatory decision, proposed regulatory reform or allegations of some regulatory failure or scandal. For lawyers, dealings with regulators and regulatory regimes have become part of the staple diet of their work. Yet the practice of regulation is far from straightforward. Regulatory policy and practice has evolved considerably from its traditional origins in the form of ‘command and control’, accompanied by the growth of specific terminology and concepts that are likely to be unfamiliar to those other than regulatory technocrats. This subject provides an opportunity for students to develop an understanding of, and critically to evaluate, the basic tools, techniques and decision-making methodologies that are employed in regulatory design and practice. It will be of interest to both private and public sector lawyers who practise in regulated sectors of the economy, enhancing their understanding of how regulators go about the business of regulatory decision-making.

Principal topics include:

Introduction: What is ‘regulation’ and ‘governance’?; the regulatory agency: institutional features, strengths and shortcomings; the rise of the ‘regulatory state’; regulatory regimes and the role of non-state actors

Enforcement and compliance: problems with rules; principles-based regulation; the role of the criminal and civil law; punitive civil sanctions (the Macrory Review); regulatory enforcement styles; national styles of regulation; private enforcement, third party monitoring and certification systems

Separation of Powers

In the absence of an Australian bill of rights, the separation of powers doctrine is one of the key foundations for the imposition of restrictions on legislative and executive power in Australia.

This subject examines recent developments in the constitutional implications that prevent the conferral of non-judicial functions on federal courts, the conferral of federal judicial power on anyone other than courts, and the related implications concerning the constitution and functions of state courts, including limitations on legislative or executive directions to those courts.

The issues of substantive constitutional law will be examined through the prism of the law and practice that governs constitutional litigation in the High Court. The subject is structured by reference to a hypothetical case study in which participants will be taught to: identify the substantive issues arising from the case study; draft the main kinds of initiating process in the High Court; consider the choices involved in various procedural steps in constitutional litigation; draft submissions addressing those steps; identify the facts necessary to advance the selected constitutional arguments; address in detail, in the course of drafting written submissions and preparing oral submissions, the substantive questions of law that arise from the case study; and write a judgment disposing of the case study.

Principal topics include:

The meaning of ‘judicial power’

Aspects of the High Court’s original and appellate jurisdictions

Separation of powers under the Commonwealth Constitution at the federal level

The protection of state courts under the Commonwealth Constitution – Kable and cases developing or reformulating the Kable principle; also, Kirk.

States: When, Why and How they Happen

States are important, as state-building exercises round the world indicate, yet there are regular suggestions that their significance is waning under pressure from globalisation externally and fragmentation internally. This subject examines this paradox from an internal perspective, addressing four main questions.

What do we mean by “state”?

Why do “states” arise (when they arise)?

How do they manage to establish themselves?

What problems do states face, and how do they try to overcome them?

To answer the questions, we have to consider political philosophy, history (including the meaning and purpose of history in state-making), the growth and operation of institutions, empires and decolonisation, the use of coercion in the functioning of states, the roles of constitutions, and the relationship between states on the international plane. We shall look at ideas of race and nation and their relationships to “state”, and undertake a number of case-studies, touching on Middle Kingdom Egypt through classical Greece and Rome, England since the fourth century CE, Ireland, the USA, Australia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Students will be encouraged to bring their own experiences and insights to the classes to illuminate the discussion.

Principal topics include:

Ways of understanding the term “state”: language, sociology, history, and the relevance of “nation” and “people”

Statutes in the 21st Century

In the first half of the 20th century most civil actions were for causes of action not much affected by statute: trespass, negligence, libel and slander, breach of contract and the various forms of equitable suit. Most criminal prosecutions were for offences created by statute but whose elements were treated as identified largely by judge-made law. There were great codifying acts; intellectual property acts, facultative acts, and regulatory statutes, but judge-made law was of central and dominating importance. The second half of the 20th century saw the statutory cause of action emerge to prominence, the enactment of laws permitting modification of privately-made agreements, the creation of new rights and obligations and novel forms of criminal offence. Statute became the central and dominating form of regulation of rights and obligations. The proper construction and application of statutes always has been, but now more than ever is, an essential legal skill. This subject seeks to develop and refine those skills.

Principal topics include:

Construction—a text-based activity but involving more than a dictionary in one hand and the text in the other

The importance of the constitutional framework and other basic assumptions

The search for meaning and the metaphor of intention

The place of Interpretation legislation, including rights Acts

The canons of construction, their use and abuse ('canons to the right of them; canons to the left of them; on into the valley of death')

Ambiguity and its resolution, including the use of extrinsic materials

The Law of Public Contracting

Contemporary governments use contracts as a key tool of governance. Outsourcing of public services is commonplace. But should we regulate the use of such tools by means of public administrative law, or through private law, or a mixture of both? Is there an accountability deficit? What are the advantages and risks of contracting out, and how can and should the law respond?

Professor Janet McLean brings both public law and private law perspectives to bear on the subject of public contracting drawing on Australian, New Zealand and United Kingdom examples.

Principal topics include:

The distinctive normative bases of private and private law and their implications for government contracts

The decision to outsource

The reach of judicial review, freedom of information and human rights law, and financial reporting rules, into the realm of contract law

Implied terms, procedural requirements and interpretative methods in contract law

Procurement rules and other internal government guidance

Public private financing initiatives and other examples of government contracting

Health and Medical Law

NameCredit points

Comparative Health Law12.5

Comparative Health Law

This subject provides an opportunity to learn about how different societies grapple with common challenges in health care systems and to consider whether and how these comparisons can be helpful in guiding change within a particular system. While human biology is similar worldwide, the economic, social, and ethical aspects of health care are reflected through the prism of each society’s culture, history and political framework. The legal responses to these economic, social and ethical debates therefore can vary from one society to another. This subject will explore comparative approaches to topics ranging from the structure and financing of the health care system to legal aspects of reproduction and death. The subject, while referencing Australian approaches, will use Canada and the United States as the base for comparison and will explore the approaches adopted in other countries as well.

Professor Bobinski recently completed serving as the Dean of the Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia, Canada. She has taught Comparative Health Law in Canada and the United States. She recently served as the President of the American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics and as a member of the Canadian Public Health Officer's Ethics Advisory Committee, and previously directed a top-ranked health law program in the United States.

Principal topics will include comparative approaches to health law and policy rules in areas such as:

The right to health and health care financing

Regulation and/or licensing of health care professionals

Quality of care

Contraception, abortion and sterilisation

Fetal conflicts

Assisted reproduction, including the implications of advances in genetics

Consent to or refusal of care, including cases involving death and dying

Public health law including traditional aspects (eg contagious diseases) and new areas such as public health approaches to obesity.

Health Data Governance

Data relating to an individual’s physical and mental health and condition can reveal extremely sensitive information. Valuable health data also underpins improvements in health care and can be useful for other government and commercial purposes. How can the law protect the principle of medical confidentiality and enable the data flows necessary for a modern learning healthcare system, public health, and other public interest purposes?

Health privacy and data protection expert Mark Taylor considers the relevant law and governance in Australia and comparable jurisdictions. This subject will provide students with an advanced and specialised knowledge of health data governance, including relevant privacy and data protection law. It will invite critical consideration of relevant law benchmarked against the Recommendation of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Council on Health Data Governance and other international standards.

Confidentiality and third-party access, including family members, researcher, public health and government

Feedback of incidental findings and the ‘right not to know’

Oversight and approval mechanisms, with consideration of issues raised by increasing use of new techniques of machine learning and analysis of big data (including algorithmic accountability in health care context)

Health Law: Patient Protection

This subject will examine patients’ expectations and legal rights when receiving health care, their avenues for complaint and compensation, and accountability mechanisms (including professional discipline) for protecting the public in the event of health, performance or conduct problems involving a health practitioner. The focus will be on patients and health practitioners in Australia and New Zealand.

Institutional Abuse and Legal Redress

Following a five year inquiry and the 2017 release of the report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses into Child Sexual Abuse after, the issue of child sexual abuse in institutional settings gained extensive attention from the public, political representatives and legal commentators. The inquiry contributed to new understandings of the incidence and extent of physical, sexual, psychological and emotional abuse in a range of institutional settings, including schools, hospitals, churches, sporting organisations, foster homes and other accommodation services. The debate on how the law may best respond to the abuse continues, with judicial attention to the current law, and political attention to law reform. There are many challenging issues associated with the legal redress of child abuse, including time limits for claims, liability for the criminal acts of others, the onus of proof, and the appropriate compensation regime.

This subject examines the background to and current understandings of child abuse in institutional settings, the relevant tort law in Australia (with international comparisons) and the challenges of its application to these situations, recent and proposed tort law reforms, and the new Australian ‘Redress Scheme’.

Bill Madden is a lawyer specialising in injury compensation including intentional torts and the overlays provided by statutory reform and statutory schemes. He is a regular writer and presenter on tort law topics.

Principal topics include:

The challenges of historical abuse

Findings from the Royal Commission and other inquiries

Liability of the perpetrator – the legal framework

Liability of the institution – the onus of proof, criminal acts, vicarious liability and non-delegable duty

The significance of mandatory reporting of abuse

Tort law reforms – limitations, the onus of proof and legal structures

Law and Emerging Health Technologies

This subject will examine ways in which law is affecting, and being affected by, the latest advances in medical technology. It will cover a variety of fascinating technologies including genetic, big data analytics, regenerative, therapeutic, artificial intelligence and reproductive technologies. It challenges students to think not only about the future of medicine, but the future of human life itself. Are legal systems dealing with these issues in adequate, legitimate, and strategic ways?

Significantly, the course is not simply for medical lawyers. The syllabus weaves specific technological case-studies with important cross-cutting themes drawn from regulation theory, law reform, and applied philosophy. Those themes are organised so as to provide a framework for critical thinking about regulatory reform and the role of law, lawyers and the medical profession in this process. The themes also impart knowledge and skills relevant to a wide range of industries where law must deal with substantial scientific uncertainty and ethical controversy. Students with interests in privacy, human rights, tort law, IT governance, artificial intelligence, science and technology, family law, and risk regulation are all catered for.

The subject will not be limited to any particular jurisdiction, but focusses on Australian and European law and draws widely on world events. It will be taught by Dr Kathleen Liddell, Director of the Centre for Law, Medicine and Life Sciences (Cambridge) who has more than 20 years’ experience in academia, legal practice, law reform, policy advice and ethical analysis.

Medical Ethics

Medical practitioners, policy-makers, the courts, patients and families are dealing with ongoing debates in medical ethics ranging from euthanasia, abortion, resource allocation and managing the risks of research, to issues thrown up at the cutting-edge of science where we can now edit the germline, or create new life via so-called 'synthetic biology'. While we have existing legal frameworks in place for some of these issues, enormous moral disagreements remain. How should we think about these issues?

This subject aims to provide a basic toolkit and skills to engage in deeper ethical reflection about the major debates in medical ethics and about advances in the biological and neurosciences. Professor Julian Savulescu is Director of the Centre for Practical Ethics, the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics and the Institute for Science and Ethics, University of Oxford. He is Editor of the Journal of Medical Ethics and is a recognised world leader in medical ethics. The goal of this subject is not to provide answers to these medical dilemmas, but to enable students to think more deeply for themselves about what their position is and to be able to justify that position to others. A variety of perspectives will be covered through the use of guest lecturers.

Principal topics include:

The current revolution in bioethical reasoning and methods in bioethics

Medical Litigation

2017 marked the 25th anniversary of the landmark Australian medical law decision Rogers v Whitaker. Medical litigation remains an exceptionally vibrant and challenging field, underpinned by the rapid pace of scientific and social developments that generate new issues for the law. Many of the more challenging issues are at the core of policy – birth, reproduction and death. The legal issues are fundamental, covering the existence of duties, what should be considered negligent, the challenges of legal causation and the appropriate compensation regime – all against a background of insurance affordability, the ongoing health and safety improvement mechanisms, the reporting and disclosure agenda and the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme. This subject examines the framework of medical litigation, current challenges and issues on the horizon.

The subject presenter Bill Madden is a lawyer specialising in medical litigation, the co-author of two health law texts and a regular writer and presenter on medical law topics.

Principal topics include:

History and incidence of medical litigation

The impact of recent legal and court-based reforms including mediation

Mental Health and Disability Law

This subject will analyse the relationship between psychiatry, psychology and law in contemporary Australia. It will address criteria and policy relating to involuntary status and the use of coercion in relation to those with mental illnesses and intellectual disabilities, focusing on the Mental Health Act 2014 (Vic) and the Disability Act 2006 (Vic); the role of the 2013 DSM-5; fitness to stand trial; mental impairment; sentencing of offenders with disabilities; expert evidence by mental health practitioners; mental harm litigation; the role of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in civil litigation; prediction of risk in criminal law; syndrome evidence in litigation; profiling evidence; and therapeutic jurisprudence.

Principal topics include:

Involuntary status in contemporary Australia

The role of the Chief Psychiatrist, the Mental Health Commissioner and the Mental Health Tribunal

Regulation of Health Practitioners

Over the past few years there have been profound changes in the regulation and registration of the health professions. Fifteen professions are now included in a national scheme and others may join them. All of the registered professions are covered by the same legislation for accreditation, registration and the monitoring of practice, to ensure that standards are maintained to protect the public. More than 700,000 health practitioners are registered under the national scheme and, when it was adopted in July 2010, 66 acts of parliament were repealed and about 85 health professional boards were abolished. This subject will provide a detailed examination of the scheme, which has centralised the disciplinary process, with the state and territory registration bodies acting under delegated authority from the federal board. The subject will also provide an understanding of how health practitioners, their employers and educators can report ‘notifiable conduct’ of practitioners to the national regulator, and how healthcare consumers (patients) can lodge a ‘notification’ about the practice of a health practitioner. The course will scrutinise the concept of revalidation, and the health, fitness/character, performance and conduct pathways, analysing the factors that lead to different forms of disciplinary findings and determinations for different forms of problematic conduct, including sexual misconduct and serious error. It will examine what differentiates permissible from impermissible advertising, will evaluate how unregistered practitioners are now regulated and will explore how registered, unregistered and deregistered practitioners’ conduct is regulated by consumer protection legislation.

Principal topics include:

Legal requirements for accreditation, registration and monitoring of practice of health practitioners in Australia

The process and grounds for disciplinary action

An examination of specific disciplinary proceedings against health practitioners, looking at issues of conduct, health, performance and fitness

A comparison of disciplinary proceedings and other legal action against health practitioners

Analysis of the regulatory mechanisms applicable to unregistered practitioners

An evaluation of the new registration scheme and its operation to date

A review of consumer protection actions that can be taken against health practitioners, both those who are registered and those who are not.

Human Rights Law

NameCredit points

Business and Human Rights12.5

Business and Human Rights

The private sector represents one of the most important and daunting challenges facing the human rights community. As the reach and influence of companies has grown – sometimes dwarfing the states in which they operate – their impact on human rights has become impossible to ignore. Human rights have become the currency of major brands, helping determine Citibank financing, Exxon-Mobil relations with communities and working conditions along Wal-Mart’s enormous supply chain. Shareholder activists, NGOs, social movements, the media and governments are demanding greater transparency and reporting on human rights. The United Nations (UN), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the multilateral banks have adopted human rights standards for companies, and a growing body of soft and hard law (domestic and international) is beginning to define the precise scope of corporate human rights obligations. This subject will explore the fast-growing field of business and human rights, highlighting the most critical legal and practical issues surrounding efforts to advance corporate responsibility and accountability.

Principal topics include:

The history of the business and human rights movement

The political and ideological challenge to applying human rights to business

The legal framework and institutions for corporate human rights accountability

Disability Human Rights Law

This subject examines the human rights of people with disabilities. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is the newest United Nations (UN) human rights treaty. This subject analyses the interpretation and implementation of the CRPD. It also explores the effect of multiple forms of marginalisation; for example, individuals with disabilities that are members of other minority groups, such as women, transgender people or racial minorities. This subject is relevant for students who are interested in reform in this area or for those interested in exploring the newest iteration of UN human rights law.

The lecturer has both personal and professional experience in this field and has a network of collaborators, including UN bodies, government actors, community groups, academics and others. She draws on her experiences and connections to deliver substantive law as well as provide an insight into the lived experience of disability.

Human Rights Advocacy

This subject is a collaborative effort to reflect on, critique, appreciate, and learn about international advocacy that responds to global injustice using a human rights framework. It provides a map of the field of international human rights advocacy—its dominant forms of action, strategies, and range of methods—and introduces students to the core elements and skills involved in that work, including the collection of evidence of human rights abuses; interviewing witnesses, governments and other potential opponents; report writing; media work; advocacy strategies; quantitative and qualitative methods; litigation; and measuring effectiveness. The subject also introduces the ethical principles and professional rules related to human rights lawyering. It addresses the obstacles to effective global justice and human rights work, and the technical, procedural, and substantive problems with the manner in which advocates investigate abuses, seek accountability, and conduct advocacy. Teaching materials are drawn from a diverse range of fields and interdisciplinary sources including law, medicine, psychology, political science, social theory, critical theory, toolkits and how-to-guides, stories, video, podcasts, human rights reports, and witness testimony. The success of the subject depends, to a great extent, on the active, engaged, and critical participation of students. The subject will be of interest to students whose work already intersects with human rights directly or to students who wish to explore ways to further inject human rights into their work. It is designed to be of relevance to students whether they are working within Australia, other countries or at the international level.

Human Rights and Climate Change

This subject will introduce and explore the main concepts, laws, institutions and policies at the intersection of international climate change law and international human rights law.

Specifically, this subject will explore three aspects of the intersection between climate change and human rights. First it will explore the nature and extent to which the impacts of climate change and response measures to address climate change can affect the realization of core human rights. It will examine the substantive and procedural rights afforded through national, regional and international instruments to those affected by environmental harms, and the ways in which such rights can be extended to cover climate harms. It will in this context analyze cases in national, regional and international courts and tribunals that engage human rights in the context of climate harms.

Second, this subject will examine the treatment of human rights in the international climate change regime, and the prospects for further integration of human rights concerns in the regime. Third, this subject will consider the phenomenon of climate-related migration and displacement, the existing international legal protection for those affected, the gaps in such protection and ways to address these gaps.

More broadly, through a study of these three aspects, this subject will examine the potential, prospects and limits of international law in protecting the rights of those affected by climate harm.

Principal topics include:

Conceptual architecture of international environmental law, climate change law and human rights

Articulation of environmental protection in the language of human rights, both substantive and procedural, in international, regional and national human rights systems, instruments and case law

autonomous ‘right to a healthy environment’ and its extension to a stable climate

‘greening’ of established rights such as the right to life and privacy and their extension to protection against climate harms

value and reach of procedural human rights in relation to protection from climate harms

Treatment of human rights in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol, and the 2015 Paris Agreement

Human Rights and Global Justice

We live in a period of rising scepticism concerning human rights, their foundations, purposes and efficacy. Yet, the language and law of human rights remains one of the truly global languages of political, moral and legal claim-making. This course will unpack and examine the tensions and contradictions of contemporary human rights law and politics. It will first consider the historical origins of contemporary human rights frameworks, with special attention to the polemical debates about the origins of human rights. It will then examine various theories of human rights and their foundations, and as the question: what is global justice and what do human rights have to do with it? Finally, the course will inquire into the utility and uses of rights to challenge harms widely perceived as instances of global injustice: inequality and uneven development, labour exploitation and military occupation. In the end, we will ask, what can we expect from human rights law today?

Human Rights Beyond Borders

This subject considers whether and to what extent international human rights law applies to the actions of states outside their sovereign territories. The focus is on international law only, not domestic law.

The extra-territorial application of international human rights law is one of the most contested and fast-moving areas of human rights law today. It is concerned with important and high-profile activities performed by states outside their borders, from war to occupation and anti-piracy and migration-related activities. This relatively under-explored area of law is of considerable current interest to governments (including their armed forces), international organisations and human rights non-government organisations (NGOs).

Principal topics include:

The nature and scope of extra-territorial State activity, from war to occupation, the interception and detention of migrants and ‘pirates’, and the operation of embassies, military bases and detention facilities

The main contours of international human rights law

Relevant principles of general international law, including treaty interpretation, and relevant features of human rights law, including applicability in times of war and occupation, and co-application with other areas of law

Arguments of principle in favour of and against applicability, including concerns about ‘legal black holes’, indirect nationality discrimination, abuses of detainees, double standards and ‘human rights imperialism’

The main treaty provisions on applicability, including ‘jurisdiction’ and colonial extension clauses

Key general features of extra-territorial applicability, including the substantive meaning of human rights law extra-territorially, and the relevance to this of self-determination; the possibility of activating ‘derogation’ clauses; and whether human rights treaties can and should apply to the actions of contracting states in the territories of other states not also parties to the same treaties

The meaning of the two ‘jurisdiction’ triggers for extra-territorial applicability, based on the exercise of control over territory or individuals

The extra-territorial application of other human rights treaties that use different triggers, notably the anti-discrimination treaties and the 1951 Refugee Convention

The application and significance of the non-refoulement obligation extra-territorially.

Human Rights: From Morality to Law

Human rights are a dominant but highly contested feature of ethical, political and legal thinking in the era ushered in by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. This subject explores the many pressing questions raised by these rights from the point of view of contemporary moral, political and legal philosophy.

Are human rights triggers for intervention or benchmarks of state legitimacy?

Are they based on dignity, interests or some other value?

How do we determine who has human rights and who bears the associated duties?

Can human rights conflict with other values and how should such conflicts be resolved?

Are human rights compatible with cultural pluralism?

How should human rights be legalised?

Is international human rights law legitimate in light of the claims of state sovereignty?

How is the content of international human rights law to be determined?

How should we reform or implement this law?

Principal topics include:

The nature of human rights: moral, legal, political?

The grounds of human rights: interests, dignity, God

The subjects of human rights and the bearers of associated duties

Conflicts involving human rights and their relations to the common good

International Human Rights Law

The field of international human rights law is today composed of a multitude of legal instruments, implementation bodies, special procedures, human rights NGOs and transitional justice mechanisms. This subject provides the opportunity to examine this field in many of its dimensions, equipping students to navigate the system and critically assess its fundamental features. It will be of interest to all students who want to develop a detailed understanding of how the international human rights law system operates, including those with limited or no background in the area. The two lecturers have significant experience across a diverse range of topics and issues within international human rights law, which they draw upon to create an engaging and thought-provoking subject.

Principal topics include:

Human rights and the challenges posed by state sovereignty and national security

The contested universality of human rights

The international institutional framework for the protection of human rights, with a special focus on the Human Rights Council and treaty monitoring system

The interpretation and application of selected rights from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)

Domestic measures for the implementation of human rights, such as judicial implementation of economic, social and cultural rights

The norm of non-discrimination as it relates to race, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity

The contribution of truth and reconciliation commissions to the protection of human rights

International Law and Children's Rights

Issues concerning children, whether they arise at the international, regional or local level, are increasingly being examined from a human rights perspective. Much of the momentum for this movement has been generated by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989, and has been ratified by every state in the world except the United States and South Sudan. This subject is designed to provide students with an understanding of the CRC and the idea of a human rights-based approach to matters involving children. It will be of interest to anyone who works in areas that impact on children, either directly or indirectly, at the international, regional or local level. The lecturer has extensive networks with civil society, international bodies and government agencies that he draws on to provide an appropriate blend of academic and practical content.

The subject consists of two parts. Part one involves a general discussion of:

The notion of children’s rights

The international framework for the protection of children’s rights, with particular emphasis on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

The factors that impact on the implementation of the Convention, both in Australia and overseas.

Part two involves an examination of specific issues relevant to children and how the Convention and a rights-based analysis can be used to respond to these issues. The issues will be drawn from areas such as:

International Refugee Law

This subject explores and examines the international legal regime for the protection of refugees. The essential premise of the subject is that refugee law should be understood as a mode of human rights protection, the viability of which requires striking a balance between the needs of the victims of human rights abuse and the legitimate aspirations of the countries to which they flee. The primary objective of the subject is to enable students to develop a comprehensive understanding of the international legal regime for international protection – the basis for being granted protection in 147 countries, including Australia. The subject will situate Australian refugee law and policy within the context of Australia’s international obligations.

National Human Rights Institutions

National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) provide a bridge between governments and civil society and are recognised within the United Nations (UN) system for their credible role in monitoring and advocating for human rights compliance within their country. A distinguishing feature of a NHRI is that, in order to meet the UN’s Paris Principles, it must be genuinely independent of the government that created it and that appointed its president and commissioners. Herein lies an inevitable tension. The obligation of the NHRI to monitor compliance with human rights may fail to meet the policy and political priorities of either or both the government and civil society. The independence of NHRIs is vital to ensuring evidence-based, legally accurate and objective monitoring of human rights compliance. That independence is however under constant threat. The United Nations Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders plays a significant role in ensuring that states are held accountable for protecting the independence of their NHRI. So too, civil society can provide vital community support to ensure respect for NHRIs.

This subject examines the role of the 118 or so NHRIs throughout the world and argues for their strengthening and independence of government and for their voice within the UN human rights system.

Principal topics include:

The international standards governing National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs)

The role of NHRIs in promoting and protecting human rights, from theory to practice; effective strategies; prevention and early intervention

International monitoring mechanisms and their relationship to NHRIs; the effect of globalisation

The mandates, functions and powers of NHRIs, with specific attention to those in Australia, Fiji, India, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand, and references to those in Afghanistan, Jordan and Palestine

The relationship between NHRIs and government, parliament, the judiciary, other independent institutions, NGOs and civil society

Reimagining Human Rights Law

This subject considers ways of reimagining the international human rights regime, which is under attack from many quarters. It is said to be ineffectual, hegemonic and ill-equipped for a world that is very different from that of the era in which it was devised, and reliant for its implementation upon outmoded forms of regulation. Another set of critiques focuses on groups at the margins of the international human rights system, including women, indigenous peoples and minority sexual groups, whose human rights are often breached.

This subject reviews these critiques and examines their explanatory force. It considers ways in which the international human rights system can be reconceived to be more effective, drawing on anthropological and socio-legal scholarship. It will focus, first, on the turn to quantification in the human rights field, especially the use of indicators, and whether this is likely to increase protection of human rights. Second, the course will discuss attempts to respond to ‘outsider’ critiques of the human rights system, including the drafting of specialised treaties and instruments. Third, the course will consider the relationship between the formal mechanisms of the human rights system and the mobilisation of human rights ideas and values by social movements and non-governmental organisation. It will examine the social and cultural processes by which international norms and laws become translated into local situations. A unique feature of this course is that it combines the perspectives of international law and legal anthropology in its approach to human rights.

Principal topics include:

A review of the key mechanisms used to promote the treaty obligations that states have accepted and how these operate

An examination of some of the major criticisms that have recently been directed at international human rights mechanisms by governments and other key actors

An overview of the question of evaluating impact in this field, including consideration of the work of scholars who have sought to measure the effect of ratification of human rights instruments

The development of an ‘indicator culture’ in the human rights field

An understanding of the role that quantification plays in defining human rights and fostering compliance through increasing accountability

A review of recent sustained critiques of the human rights regime by scholars such as Stephen Hopgood, Samuel Moyn, Eric Posner, Harri Englund and others

A discussion of Third World, feminist and queer critiques of the international human rights system

Analysis of specialised treaties and instruments responding to these critiques, including CEDAW (the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women), the Istanbul Convention on Domestic Violence and the Yogjakarta Principles

An introduction to anthropological approaches to the international human rights system

Examination of human rights in practice, focusing on the way these ideas are mobilised to deal with local issues such as gender violence and indigenous rights.

Women, Peace and Security

In 2000 the United Nations (UN) Security Council for the first time considered the impact of war on women through the adoption of Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS). This has been followed by seven further resolutions, thereby creating an institutional agenda that encompasses women’s participation in conflict prevention and resolution, protection of women from sexual and gender-based violence in conflict, and humanitarian relief and recovery for survivors of sexual violence. The subject will critically examine the WPS agenda, its place in contemporary conflicts and its basis in international humanitarian law, international criminal law and human rights law.

The lecturer, Professor Christine Chinkin, has a long academic record in international law, especially the human rights of women. She is currently Director of the Centre for Women Peace and Security at the London School of Economics and has practical experience through advising UN and Council of Europe bodies and a House of Lords select committee on sexual violence in conflict, as well as having been a member of fact-finding missions in Gaza, Malawi, Mali and Colombia.

Principal topics include:

The concepts of new wars and human security

The evolution of the women, peace and security agenda

The status of women, peace and security as a legal regime

Women and war

The four ‘pillars’ of women, peace and security.

Participation of women in peace processes and peacekeeping operations

Prevention of sexual and gender-based violence in conflict and in so-called peacetime

Intellectual Property Law

NameCredit points

Copyright Law12.5

Copyright Law

The subject explores this Australian intellectual property regime in predominantly black-letter terms. It asks students to consider the doctrinal issues implicated by the various aspects of copyright law: subsistence, ownership, infringement, exceptions to infringement and remedies. Also integrated with the curriculum are moral and performers' rights, and the treatment of internet service provider liability as an intermediary between copyright owner and infringer. The subject is structured within an international framework, explaining the importance of treaty norms and with selective use of comparative law.

Principal topics include:

The evolution and theory of the national and international copyright system

Designs Law and Practice

Design plays a critical role in the production and marketing of goods. Adequate protection of designs is important in order to encourage the creation of innovative products and thus enhance the Australian economy. This subject is primarily concerned with the laws in Australia that protect designs and will cover the registered regimes for protecting designs under the Designs Act 2003 (Cth) and parts of the Designs Act 1906 (Cth), as well as the protection of designs as original artistic works under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The first lecturer is a well-known intellectual property law academic and former barrister, while the second is a senior patent attorney with extensive experience in designs law and practice. This subject meets the Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board (TTIPAB) requirements for ‘Topic Group I: Designs Law’. It will also include coverage of the relevant aspects of the laws of New Zealand on these matters.

Fundamentals of Intellectual Property

Fundamentals of Intellectual Property provides a good introduction to intellectual property (IP) for students wishing to pursue more specialised graduate studies in this area. It also provides a general overview of IP law for Australian and non-Australian students who are seeking this as part of an overall commercial and trade law program.

The objective of this subject is to provide an introduction to, and general overview of, the various Australian legal regimes protecting IP. IP laws, including those with respect to patents, designs and copyright, are directed at the encouragement and protection of innovations in science, technology and cultural products. They also operate, through the laws of trade marks and unfair competition, to provide protection for the later stages of development at which these innovations are disseminated and marketed. There is a potential for conflict between these laws and competition laws, and this interface will be discussed, together with an introduction to the international framework of treaties under which the owners of IP rights (IPRs) from one country can seek protection in another.

Completion of the first day of this subject (Overview of Intellectual Property one day seminar) meets the requirements of the Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board (TTIPAB) for ‘Topic Group A2’.

Note: If you enrol in Fundamentals of Intellectual Property (LAWS90125), you do not need to enrol in Overview of Intellectual Property.

Principal topics include:

Introduction to the concept of and rationales for IPRs

Models used for the protection of IP (the patent model, the copyright model and variations of both)

Patents for invention, including:

Registration process

Subject matter

Conditions for protection

Exclusive rights and infringement

Defences

Innovation patents

Protection of confidential information and trade secrets under general law

Registered designs

Copyright and allied rights, including:

Subject matter protected - works and other subject matter

Conditions for protection

Duration

Exclusive rights

Exceptions

Licensing and exploitation

Trade marks and unfair competition

Protection for unregistered marks and other indicia through common law and equity

Fundamentals of Patent Drafting

This subject teaches students the fundamental principles and basic skills of drafting patent specifications. It does so through a combination of in-class instruction sessions on a range of topics, in-class drafting exercises with review sessions, and out-of-class drafting exercises with tutorial review sessions. Students are assessed by two practical assessment tasks, undertaken individually outside the classroom. Passing the subject will satisfy the knowledge requirements specified by the Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board (TTIPAB) for Topic Group G: Drafting patent specifications. The lecturers for this subject include a number of practising patent attorneys with substantial experience teaching drafting skills.

Internat.Issues in Intellectual Property

Over the past two decades, the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) globally has become a major issue both for right holders and users, and one that has had profound implications in a number of important areas of public discourse, such as international trade, public health, education and research, national development and the promotion of biodiversity. This subject seeks to engage with all these issues, and begins with a discussion of the sources of international intellectual property (IP) law, including the principal IP treaties and the general architecture of the international IP system. It then considers a number of case studies where particular IP issues arise and where international solutions are presently being negotiated. It will also examine the growing tension between the territoriality of IPRs and the global scope of IP exploitation, considering how this clash plays out in the key area of private international law. Both lecturers have had extensive experience in international intellectual property matters, and bring to the subject both academic and practical perspectives that add greatly to its interest and relevance.

This subject consists of a survey of the economic, legal and political elements and forces that shape the international IP system.

Principal topics include:

Introduction to the international IP system, including the main producers and owners of IP, the institutional architecture and the treaty system, including those administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization and the World Trade Organization (notably the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights), and the emergence of bilateral and regional trade and investment protection treaties that have an impact on the protection of IP rights

Interpretation and Validity of Patents

Reading and interpreting patent specifications is a central part of a patent attorney's daily practice. It is also a critical feature of any patent litigation where both sides will be competing for alternative interpretations that favour their client. This subject is intended to hone these skills of analysis and interpretation, working on the basic legal principles that students seeking Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board (TTIPAB)accreditation have already obtained through their study of patent law and patent practice. It is taught by experienced attorneys and litigators, and meets the TTIPAB requirements for Topic Group H.

This subject will be conducted with a number of case studies carried out by a team of practitioners to develop skills in the application of the rules of interpretation to patent specifications and in the application of Australian and New Zealand patent laws.

Principal topics include:

The validity of an Australian or New Zealand patent or patent application under the provisions of Australian and New Zealand laws concerned with support, sufficiency of description and utility

The validity of an Australian and New Zealand patent or patent application in the light of prior art information supplied, including through prior published specifications and prior user

The scope for making amendments of patent applications

The infringement of an Australian or New Zealand patent by a competitor's product or process.

Patent Law

For at least 400 years, patent law has been the primary regulatory mechanism for optimising innovation. With more than two million patent applications filed annually around the world, the patent system is both highly complex and of great economic importance. This subject provides the foundational knowledge necessary for a professional understanding of patent law and the patent system. It does so through a combination of instructional sessions and hands-on workshop sessions. These provide students with a detailed understanding of the principles of patent law, with a particular focus on the requirements for the grant of a valid patent, and for infringement of a patent, under Australian and New Zealand law. In the workshop sessions, students apply the principles of patent validity and patent infringement to actual prior art, patent claims and infringing embodiments. Successful completion of this subject satisfies the knowledge requirements specified by the Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board (TTIPAB) for Topic Group E: Patent Law.

Patent Practice

This subject follows on from Patent Law (which is a prerequisite) and provides students with the basic knowledge and skills required for the filing, prosecution and maintenance of an application for protection under the Patents Act 1990 (Cth) for both local and international inventions. The lecturers are an expert team of experienced patent attorneys and the subject meets the Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board (TTIPAB) requirements for ‘Topic Group F: Patent Practice’.

Trade Mark Practice

This subject builds on the material covered in the Trade Marks and Unfair Competition subject. Trade Mark Practice is primarily concerned with the procedures and practices of the Australian Trade Marks Office in obtaining and maintaining registered trademarks and relevant aspects of New Zealand trade mark procedures and practice. This subject is thus particularly valuable for students wishing to prosecute trade mark applications through those offices. The rights, privileges and responsibilities of a patent or trade mark attorney are also covered in the wider context of attorneys’ professional conduct. The lecturers in the subject have extensive experience in the obtaining of trade mark registrations and the subject meets the Trans-Tasman IP Attorneys Board (TTIPAB) requirements for ‘Topic Groups’ B and D.

The emphasis of this subject is on the documentation, procedures and practice of the Australian Trade Marks Office and relevant aspects of New Zealand trade marks procedure and practice.

Principal topics include:

The respective national offices, registers and official journals

Determining the availability of a trade mark for use and registration, searching the Trade Marks Office database and other search options

Applications for registration, including Madrid Protocol, Convention, divisional and series applications

Examination and acceptance of applications

Opposition to registration

Initiating and opposing applications to remove a trade mark for non-use

Amendment of applications and other documents; revocation post-registration

Obtaining registration and renewal of registration

Obtaining extensions of time

New Zealand trade mark practice (relevant issues)

Exploitation, including assignments and registration of security interests

Parallel importations and Customs seizure

International conventions and initiatives, and protecting trade marks in foreign countries

The rights, privileges and professional responsibilities of a patent or trade mark attorney.

Trade Marks and Unfair Competition

This subject is concerned with the laws in Australia that protect trade marks and relevant aspects of New Zealand law on this topic. Trade marks play a pivotal role in the marketing of goods and services, and generally are one of a trader‘s most valuable assets. The protection of trade marks is thus of critical importance to all traders but is also important to consumers, who rely on the information conveyed by trade marks. This subject concentrates on the trade mark protection regime provided by the Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth), and involves a detailed study of the provisions of this Acts and related case law, together with relevant aspects of the corresponding New Zealand laws and cases. The action for passing-off and actions for contravention of the Australian Consumer Law provisions in the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), and corresponding New Zealand statutory provisions, proscribing misleading and deceptive conduct are also covered.

Professor Robert Burrell is an experienced intellectual property academic and a registered trade mark attorney with extensive experience of Australian trade marks law and practice. Lindy Golding is a former partner in a leading London law firm who specialised in intellectual property matters, including copyright and trade marks.

Principal topics include:

The function of trade marks

Registration of trade marks under Australian and New Zealand laws

Infringement, defences and remedies

Licensing and assignment, and other exploitation of trade marks

Removal and cancellation of registration

Management and maintenance of trade marks

The action for passing-off and actions for contravention of the Australian Consumer Law provisions in the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) proscribing misleading and deceptive conduct (and the corresponding provisions under New Zealand law)

Other protections for name and insignia, including the domain name system.

International Economic Law

NameCredit points

Digital Trade12.5

Digital Trade

International trade is being transformed by the globalisation of the internet and the ability to move data across borders. Small businesses and firms in developing countries are using internet platforms such as eBay and Alibaba to engage in international trade. Software, music and books that used to be traded physically are now being transmitted digitally across borders; lawyers, consultants and other professional services are using the internet to reach new markets. Data analytics and cloud computing have become essential tools for firms in domestic and international markets.

This subject will examine the impact of the internet and global data flows on international trade. Students will learn about the varied and innovative ways that the internet and data enable international economic activity. Students will look at how government regulation in areas such as privacy and national security affects digital trade and will examine the balance between achieving these goals and maximising opportunities for trade, growth and jobs. Students will learn about the extent to which international trade rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and free trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement support an open internet and global data flows; will identify gaps in law and practice; and will analyse where new global norms and rules are needed. Special topics covered may include: the opportunities of digital trade for developing countries and small and medium enterprises (SMEs); challenges posed by the 'Internet of Things' and privacy regulation; and digital trade and national security.

Joshua P Meltzer is a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC and adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies where he teaches international trade law. He is a leading scholar on digital trade issues, consults governments, the World Bank and the World Economic Forum and was appointed an expert witness in digital trade and privacy litigation.

Principal topics include:

Overview of the globalisation of the internet including global trends in internet access and use

The economics of the internet - students will learn how internet access and global data flows are improving productivity, enabling innovation and expanding opportunities for global engagement

What is the impact of the internet and data flows on international trade? This will include the role of digital platforms and the increasing importance of digital services trade

What are the barriers to digital trade, who is erecting them and why? Students will learn about the regulatory challenges to digital trade in areas of consumer protection, financial and privacy laws and the different approaches being taken in the European Union, the United States and Australia, and consider how to achieve domestic regulatory goals while maximising digital trade

Applying international trade law to digital trade issues and identifying the legal gaps - students will analyse where existing international trade rules apply to digital trade issues. This will include analysis of WTO agreements and cases as well as new trade rules in free trade agreements. Gaps in trade law will be identified and students will consider whether new trade rules and norms are needed and where they can be negotiated.

International Business Transactions

This subject is a basic 'how-to' on international business transactions and is essential for those wishing to practise international trade law. The subject intentionally covers a vast array of related topics, with the focus being on the legal issues faced by practising lawyers in the field. Particular emphasis is placed on issues such as trade terms, international sales of goods, documentary credits, carriage of goods, customs and border regulations. This subject also considers several issues relating to international trade, such as intellectual property rights, licensing, franchising and governmental measures regulating investment. Such coverage ensures students are exposed to the most important and frequent issues facing the practising trade lawyer.

Principal topics may include:

Basic trade contracts and common trade terms

Choice of law and choice of jurisdiction in international trade contracts

International Commercial Arbitration

International commercial arbitration is the most important method globally for resolving cross-border commercial disputes. The focus of this subject is on the basic principles of international commercial arbitration law and is taught from the perspective of both the practitioner advising clients and the scholar interested in advanced research. There will be a particular focus on the desirability of arbitration compared with other dispute resolution methods, the relationships between the courts and arbitrators, drafting techniques and developments in Australia and other countries.

Principal topics include:

The nature of international arbitration

Applicable law in international arbitration

The Australian procedural regime and an introduction to the UNCITRAL Model Law

International Economic Law

Newspaper headlines frequently concern global economic issues, from trade disputes between countries and investment claims by foreign investors against sovereign states, to countries facing balance-of-payments crises and seeking assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This subject examines the law governing global economic issues. It is designed both as a comprehensive introduction in its own right to this important field, as well as a foundation for further exploration through specialist subjects in the curriculum. It begins with a historical and theoretical background to the field before turning to focus on international trade law, particularly the rules and dispute settlement procedures of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It then discusses contemporary developments in international trade law and policy, including the negotiations for regional or bilateral preferential trade agreements. The subject then considers international investment law, examining key substantive obligations relating to investor protection and investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms (particularly through the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)). Finally, the subject provides an introduction to the lending policies and practices of international financial institutions, particularly the IMF and the World Bank.

Principal topics include:

Nature, evolution and context of international economic law

The law of the WTO

Dispute settlement in the WTO

International investment law

Investor-state arbitration under the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) Convention

International financial institutions (particularly the IMF and the World Bank).

Internat Investment Law and Arbitration

International investment law regulates the entry and operation of foreign investment and is one of the fastest-growing fields of public international law. This subject begins by tracing the historical, political and economic causes for the protection of foreign investment across custom, bilateral and regional investment treaties. It then focuses on the unique system of dispute resolution in this field, which gives private (foreign) actors the right to pursue claims for damages against states. This subject explores a series of case studies to evaluate the impact of investment law across a range of core values, including public health, environmental regulation and the protection of human rights.

Principal topics include:

Nature, evolution and context of international investment law

Overview of bilateral investment treaties (BITs), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Energy Charter Treaty and parts of the World Trade Organization (WTO)

Scope of protection: definition of ‘investor’ and ‘investment‘

Relative obligations of non-discrimination: most-favored-nation (MFN) and national treatment

Obligation to accord foreign investors ‘fair and equitable treatment‘

Expropriation and the quantification of compensation

Contract claims versus treaty claims: the ‘umbrella’ clause

Arbitration under the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) Convention.

International Trade Law

International trade is of great importance to almost every country in the world. Many legal relationships are necessary for goods to be traded from one country to another, and they are all predictably flavoured by the issues that arise when different legal systems interact. This subject considers the private commercial legal issues that arise when goods are traded from one country to another, framework contracts such as agency and exclusive distribution, as well as public international law issues that arise when governments try to influence the subject of international trade. The goal of the subject is to give some sense of how the private commercial aspects of trade create issues for government-to-government relationships about trade, and vice versa.

Principal topics include:

The contracts by which trade in goods takes place: sale, transport, payments and insurance

WTO Law and Dispute Settlement

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is at the centre of ongoing debates concerning both fragmentation of public international law and persistent inequities between developed and developing countries. It also provides one of the most active systems in the world for resolving international disputes, with jurisdiction over some of the largest and most significant matters arising today. This subject offers a sophisticated understanding of the WTO and its dispute settlement system, including a detailed analysis of the fundamental principles and jurisprudence of WTO law. The instructors are both leading scholars in WTO law and former Legal Officers with the Appellate Body Secretariat of the WTO.

Principal topics include:

History and objectives of the WTO

WTO dispute settlement

Core disciplines under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (GATT 1994):

International Law

NameCredit points

Comparative Indigenous Rights12.5

Comparative Indigenous Rights

This highly topical subject analyses the rights of Indigenous peoples in Australia, Canada, the United States and New Zealand. Topics discussed include Aboriginal title and the doctrine of discovery, treaties, land and resource rights, self-determination, and Indigenous families and justice. The subject will be taught from a critical perspective, comparing and assessing the treatment of Indigenous rights in the four jurisdictions. In exploring these issues, the subject will also examine aspects of legal pluralism, and assess a variety of normative and political justifications for Indigenous rights.

Principal topics include:

History of the concept of Aboriginal title and the doctrine of discovery

Concepts of sui generis agreement-making between Indigenous peoples and governments

Implications of distinctions between government obligations and Indigenous rights

International Criminal Law

Historical experience demonstrates that, without justice, it is exceedingly difficult to establish an inclusive and lasting peace. And yet, while States pay significant lip service to accountability, all too often it is the victim of real politik. This subject will explore why, how and when individuals can be held individually criminally responsible for serious international crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC), other international mechanisms, and national jurisdictions.

In addition to considering the substantive rules of international criminal law, students will explore a range of legal policy issues relating to the prosecution of serious international crimes, including through case studies on Kenya, Palestine, Burundi, the Rohingya, ISIS and the crime of aggression.

Drawing on the lecturer’s experience representing Australia in the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties, and the insights of other senior practitioners, the subject is focused throughout on contemporary issues of international criminal law that are of real relevance to practitioners and scholars alike.

Principal topics include:

The nature of law, war and crime, and the relationship between peace and justice

The development of international criminal law, including the contribution of the ad hoc international and mixed criminal tribunals

The Rome Statute crimes (genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression) and their relationship to customary international law

The modes of individual criminal responsibility and the defences recognised by international criminal law

The ICC’s structure and personal and temporal jurisdiction

The proceedings and practice of the ICC

The stakeholders of international criminal law (including victims, witnesses, defendants, States, civil society, the United Nations and the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties)

The role of the new ad hoc criminal mechanisms (the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria and the Investigative Team for ISIL in Iraq), as well as efforts to ensure accountability for the downing of flight MH17

The prosecution of international crimes in national jurisdictions, including on the basis of universal jurisdiction

International Humanitarian Law

The implementation of the legal rules governing the conduct of military hostilities is literally a matter of life and death. This subject combines current international practice in the relevant law with acknowledged research and practical expertise. This subject briefly introduces the historical development of international humanitarian law and raises a series of questions around the effective implementation of the law.

What is an armed conflict and how do we determine the legal character of a conflict?

How do combatants distinguish between civilians and enemy combatants and how can protection for civilians in armed conflict—particularly women and children—be improved?

Who can lawfully be targeted and killed and who can be detained?

Which weapons are prohibited and which are permitted?

Principal topics include:

The historical development of international humanitarian law and its rationale in a broader context

The Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Additional Protocols of 1977 and developments in customary international law

The unique role of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in armed conflict

The relationship of international humanitarian law to other related areas of international law, such as arms control and disarmament, human rights, peacekeeping and international criminal law

Implementation of the law through case studies

Current issues for development of the law, such as emerging technologies, child soldiers, the protection of women in armed conflict and the law of occupation and terrorism.

International Law

This subject is an introduction to the foundational principles and rules of the public international legal order. It is designed as an introduction to international law and, therefore, provides students with an understanding of the key concepts of international law, its history and contemporary relevance, sources of international law and the role of some key international institutions, such as the United Nations (UN). The subject is grounded in both theory and practice in order to consider how international law works in shaping and dealing with a range of issues such as dispute settlement, self-determination, decolonisation, diplomacy, international criminal law and human rights law. Contemporary examples will be used to enrich student learning. Students will be encouraged to critically evaluate the position and relevance of international law in international politics and society by addressing past and current developments through case studies. The members of the teaching team are scholars in international law who have developed specific areas of specialisation in international law.

Principal topics include:

The nature, purpose and language of international law

Sources of international law

International legal personality

Jurisdiction of states and jurisdictional immunities

The responsibility of states and individuals for violations of international law

The role of the UN and regional organisations

Peaceful settlement of disputes and the functions of the International Court of Justice

International Law and Relations

This subject will place international law in the context of the practice of international relations and, in particular, international diplomacy. The subject will introduce students to leading accounts of international law’s role in global political life while showing, too, how the international legal order intersects with and constitutes the practice of international diplomacy. It will be taught by Gerry Simpson, Chair of International Law at the London School of Economics, and Richard Rowe, a former senior official in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and a person with a life-time of extraordinary experience in the operation of international legal diplomacy.

International Law and Politics

The course will examine the ways in which 'political' arguments and considerations intrude in the various fields of public international law and are then translated into legal doctrines and principles in legal practice. It will thus offer a contextual reading of the role of international law – use of force, human rights, international criminal law, international economic law – in the struggle for the adoption of spiritual and material values in the world

Principal topics include:

A brief contextual history of the 'rise' of modern international law (1870-2000)

International Law and the Use of Force

The question of the use of force is one of the most controversial both in international law and international relations. Different states, civil society and international lawyers have held over time (wildly) diverse opinions about the legality and the legitimacy of events such as the bombing of Syria by the US/UK/France in early 2018, Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, the exercise of the international community’s ‘responsibility to protect’ in Libya in 2011 and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, as well as debates over the possibility of a ‘pre-emptive strike’ against North Korea or Iran. This subject provides a doctrinal, theoretical, and historical account of the relationship between international law and war that is centered on a wide range of case studies. On the one hand, we will focus on major contemporary debates about the regime established since 1945 and the promulgation of the UN Charter. Namely, we will examine the specific arguments states and international organisations (such as the UN, NATO or the African Union) have used in order to justify their resort to violence and the way other states, international organisations, courts or other groups (especially those at the receiving end of this violence) have responded to these arguments. For example, this module is structured around questions such as the legality of ‘humanitarian intervention’, the possibility of lawfully launching ‘preemptive strikes’ against a perceived threat, the question of whether a state can invoke its right to self-defence against non-state actors, the use of nuclear weapons, targeted killing and the authority of the UN Security Council to authorise violence. On the other hand, this subject invites students to think contextually, historically and critically about these legal debates. We will discuss both earlier legal regimes pertaining to war (for example, that of the League of Nations) as well as arguments about the radical transformation of the relevant law since 9/11. We will also ask broader questions about the ways in which legitimate violence is allocated between different actors by international law and how this allocation shapes international and domestic politics.

Principal topics will include:

The contemporary legal regime pertaining to the use of force;

The co-existence of the relevant provisions in the UN Charter with principoesl of customary international law, domestic law, other systems of legality;

Historical approaches to the legal regulation of the use of force;

The meaning of the term ‘force’ in international law, and its relationship with ‘intervention’, ‘armed attack’ or economic, political and other forms of coercion;

The UN Charter framework for collective security and the changing role of the UN Security Council;

The scope of the right of self-defence, including anticipatory and collective self-defence;

A range of case studies covering a wide range of historical, contemporary and regional contexts.

Law of International Organisations

The actions and activities of international organisations have been much scrutinised in recent years. This subject will focus on the law common to international (inter-governmental) organisations in order to understand the complex legal framework which governs their work. It will critically analyse the features of such organisations in light of recent practice and case law, with a particular emphasis on issues that have arisen in the major global inter-governmental institutions (for example, the United Nations) and regional organisations (for example, the European Union and ASEAN). The subject will highlight recent controversies in international organisations to illustrate the application of the law to complex factual situations.

This subject will be of interest to students with a desire to develop their understanding of the role of international organisations and the legal regimes which govern their work. Alison Duxbury is a Professor at the Melbourne Law School and an Associate Director of the Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law. Alison's major research interests are in the fields of international institutional law and human rights law.

Principal topics include:

Historical development of international organisations and theories concerning the place of international organisations in the international community

Legal status of international organisations in international and domestic law (including legal personality, privileges and immunities, and law-making function)

The United Nations and related agencies (structure, membership and participation, powers, efficacy, proposals for reform)

Regional organisations, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region (for example, ASEAN), and their prospects for future development

The relationship between international organisations and other actors in the international community, including member states, non-member states and non-governmental organisations

The accountability and responsibility of international organisations for their actions.

Law of the Sea

The law of the sea relates to the allocation of jurisdiction and peaceful uses of the seas and oceans, the equitable and efficient utilisation of marine resources, and the study, protection and preservation of the marine environment. Historically concerned with the ‘freedom of the seas’ for sovereign states, the law of the sea must also address contemporary and emerging challenges such as climate change, marine species preservation, pollution, overlapping territorial claims and national security. The overarching legal regime of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is supplemented by specific agreements as well as market techniques and supply chain oversight. This subject provides an overview and critique of the established and newly forming international regimes – and their interaction – and is informed by an institutional approach that acknowledges the influence of dispute settlement systems, non-state participation and transnational and administrative practices. The lecturers have published widely on fisheries law, trade law, the law of the sea and on the interaction between international legal regimes.

Principal topics include:

The Law of the Sea Convention and associated instruments governing the high seas, including the Fish Stocks Agreement

Divisions of jurisdiction within the Law of the Sea, including key notions of the territorial sea, exclusive economic zones (EEZ), areas beyond national jurisdiction (high seas) and the sea-bed area

Voluntary instruments of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, including the Compliance Agreement, the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and the Port State Measures Agreement, as well as emerging views on the ecosystem approach and marine protected areas

Law, Science and Technology

Science and technology are at the heart of many of the most pressing legal and social problems of our day: disease prevention, bioethics, big data, state and corporate surveillance, the regulation of military technologies, and so on. This subject invites students to consider the common challenges of law, policy and public discourse posed by problems of this sort, at both the domestic and international level. In doing so, it asks: how do scientific discoveries and their technological applications shape our legal and social worlds? And how do law and society affect scientific and technological developments in turn?

The overall aim is to equip students coming from diverse backgrounds, training and experience with the analytical and critical tools necessary to understand and respond to complex questions of science and technology in all their legal, social, (geo)political, ethical, and cultural dimensions.

The lecturer undertakes research and advocacy in this area and was recently a visiting fellow at the Harvard Program on Science, Technology and Society.

Principal topics include:

Science and technology studies as a field

The relationship between ‘law’, ‘science’, ‘technology’ and ‘society’ as concepts and fields of practice

Biotechnology and bioethics

Drug patents and disease prevention

Big data and global surveillance

Military technologies

Public discourse around science and technology

The future: advocacy, law reform and other critical encounters between law, science, technology and society.

Post-Conflict State-Building

This subject deals with the body of law and practice that applies to states as they emerge from conflict and try to build strong, prosperous and responsive communities. It lies at the intersection of several bodies of law including international law, international humanitarian law, international human rights law and domestic constitutional law. Many of the issues with which it deals are at the cutting-edge of these fields: the extra-territorial effect of constitutional law; the possibility of a ‘lex pacificatoria’ to govern the ambiguous character of intra-state peace agreements; the legitimacy of constitutions developed with international assistance; the notion of transformative military occupation. The two teachers in this highly innovative subject bring different bodies of expertise to bear on it. Professor Bruce Oswald is an international and international humanitarian law specialist; Laureate Professor Cheryl Saunders works in the area of comparative constitutional law. Both have practical experience of aspects of post-conflict state-building, which informs their approach to teaching and research in the field.

Principal topics include:

The concepts inherent in post-conflict state-building

International humanitarian law and the law of occupation

Current trends in peace-building

The relevance of constitution building to post-conflict state-building

Law and Development

NameCredit points

Development, Labour and Human Rights12.5

Development, Labour and Human Rights

The proper role to be played by labour standards and human rights in the construction of the international economic order, and in the development process, is an intricate issue and a matter of controversy. This subject examines the relationship between (economic) development and labour law – exploring the place of rights within both investment and trade-led development models, and the contrasting social justice-based developmental approaches.

In investigating the role of labour law in development, this subject interrogates the rationales, content, institutions and regulatory frameworks relating to labour standards and human rights at regional and international levels. This entails not only a technical analysis of transnational instruments and supervisory structures but also detailed consideration of underlying political and economic concerns. Such regulatory frameworks for labour that have prevailed in the global ‘North’ have been the basis of transplantation and experimentation in the 'South', and might obscure the actual characteristics of labour relations in the ‘South’. The subject examines the redefinition of labour law, paying close attention to North-South relations in the regulation of labour; to the relationship between labour rights and human rights; and to the limits of rights discourse.

Attention will be given to various case studies. Illustrative topics include:

Introduction: Re-imagining labour law for development

Labour and the turn to human rights discourse

The changing nature of work: informalisation, ‘precariatisation’, and the rise in low quality work

Defining labour in the global North and the global South: Unpaid labour, family employment and care work

Setting, supervising and enforcing international labour standards

‘Core’ labour rights and the International Labour Organisation

Development, free trade and labour rights: socio-economic rights as a condition of international trade

Competing regimes and norms on migrant labour

The regional and sub-regional dimension: the European Union, the African Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations

Labour dimensions of codes of conduct, social labelling and investor initiatives: effectiveness and legitimacy

‘Post-industrial’ labour law in the global North and South: Alternative models of social protection and social justice, Universal Basic Income and employment guarantees

International Law and Development

The concept of development has been crucial to structuring international legal relations from the end of World War II to the present day. During that time, international law and institutions have taken on ‘development’ as a primary project. In both the public and economic domains, the vast majority of international institutions engage with the development project in some shape or form. This subject invites students to think about the nature and importance of development and its relation to international law. The history of development in relation to imperialism, decolonisation, the Cold War and globalisation means that this set of relations is complex and dynamic. Understanding it is crucial to understanding the place of international law, and the work development does in the contemporary world.

Principal topics include:

Law and development as a field

The ‘development’ concept and its precursors

The relationship between the concepts of ‘law’ and ‘development’

The institutionalisation of development

Development, imperialism, decolonisation and the nation state

Permanent sovereignty over natural resources and the new international economic order

International Law and the City

In recent decades, cities have become a critical site through which contemporary international aspirations are pursued. Increasingly, cities are asserting themselves as international actors while also coming to be regulated by global lawmaking processes. This subject offers an in-depth inquiry into international law and global governance, viewed through the lens of the city. Relevant both to scholars and practitioners, the course critically assesses the international legal framework in which cities in the global north and south are coming to be enmeshed, with a focus on the city-scale governance of climate change, urban security and human rights.

The subject will combine interactive lectures with group presentations, invited speakers and the use of documentaries and new media. Readings will be drawn from law and a wide range of other disciplines, including international relations, history, geography, development, sociology, anthropology, architecture, planning and philosophy. The more theoretical texts will be complemented by primary sources allowing students to develop a close reading on one of the most topical developments in contemporary global governance and international law.

Principal topics include:

Introduction: Cities, international law and global governance today - an overview

History and theory: From interwar internationalism to state decentralisation; The emergence of the global city; Urban development and the right to the city

The legal framework: Cities in international law; Cities in domestic legal orders; Cities and international organisations: The local in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank; Cities as civil society; Cities

Practices: The sustainable City: The climate change regime; The bankable city: Urban finances, competitiveness and debt; The human rights city: Local residents and urban development

The law and politics of global cities: Local activism and the remaking of international law; Alternative local futures and global orders.

NGOs and International Development

This subject considers the topic of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international development. In addition to critically examining the development context, this subject will highlight the importance of NGOs in development and engage with the criticisms that NGOs working in and towards development attract. In that respect, the course demonstrates how interest in NGOs has both reflected and informed wider theoretical trends and debates within development studies, public international law and not-for-profit law. It will also consider NGOs in relation to ideas and debates about civil society, globalisation and ideas and practices of international aid. The subject will consider a wide diversity of NGOs and locate their modern roles within broader histories of imperialism, proselytization, charity, self-determination and struggle as well as within the ideological context of neoliberalism. The legal and policy relationships of NGOs with governments and how this impacts on national and popular sovereignty, service delivery and civil and political freedoms will be examined through contemporary practice and case studies.

Principal topics include:

Introduction to NGOS: What are non-governmental organizations? What legal forms do they take? How are they regulated?

Private Law

NameCredit points

Advanced Commercial Law: Current Issues12.5

Advanced Commercial Law: Current Issues

The subject considers key legal concepts employed in commercial law and the practical role they play in solving commercial disputes. Our focus is on key structures and relationships used in commercial transactions, and the question of how such structures and relationships may affect third parties. As commercial parties often need to decide what legal structure to adopt in a relationship, we consider and compare the differing legal consequences of different types of commercial transactions, looking at their effect on both contracting parties and third parties. In doing so, we look at how key conceptual building blocks of commercial law (such as agency; trusts; sale; assignment; and security) are applied in practice. Given the international nature of much commercial law, and the important ongoing influence of shared common law concepts, we consider both Australian and English materials.

The syllabus remains flexible to ensure that our focus is on recent developments and topics of current interest. In 2019, the core topics studied will be: (i) agency: its internal and external aspects; (ii) trusts and their use in commercial transactions; (iii) sale and the effect of passing property; (iv) assignment of contractual rights and the practical effects of non-assignment clauses; (v) the operation of good faith in commercial relationships. Broader themes to be discussed include: (i) the effects of different transactions on third parties, including the limits placed by the law on the parties’ freedom to determine such effects; (ii) the interaction of common law, equity and statute in commercial contexts.

Students taking this subject will be assumed to have a basic knowledge of the principles of contract law, property law, equity and trusts, as applied in Australia or other legal jurisdictions.

Principal topics:

Agency: internal and external aspects

The use of trusts in commercial relationships

Sale and the effect of passing property

The transfer and protection of intangible commercial rights, including assignment of choses in action

Commercial Applications of Equity

Equitable doctrines and remedies lie at the heart of commercial conduct, transactions and private law litigation. They provide unique standards of conduct that restrict and guide commercial dealings and a raft of powerful personal and proprietary remedies that dictate defendant liability when transactions fail. Over recent years their influence has been seen not only in important judicial decisions affecting commercial dealings, but in the raft of legislation that now builds on those equitable foundations. This subject considers some of the more pressing points of convergence between equitable doctrine and commercial practice, and examines their ongoing relationship with key statutory counterparts. In doing so, the subject is tightly structured to ensure that students are exposed to cutting-edge legal theory concerning court-led equitable developments and to the ramifications of those developments at the coal-face of commercial practice and dealings.

This subject will be relevant to transaction lawyers involved in planning, initiating and drafting contracts, for corporate lawyers and regulators involved in consumer and banking law and for commercial litigators. The lecturers are internationally recognised experts in the commercial applications of equitable doctrines and remedies. They are also exceptional teachers, evidenced by the consistently outstanding results in the student experience surveys for this subject.

Principal topics include:

The role of equity in commercial transactions

The nature of the fiduciary obligations, including the avoidance and ‘management’ of fiduciary conflicts

Undue influence, mistakes and the enforcement of domestic guarantees in banking contexts

Quistclose trusts

The role of estoppel in commercial transactions

Equitable remedies for breach of obligation, with special reference to gain-based awards and constructive and resulting trusts.

Comparative Family Law

In an increasingly globalised world, it is no longer enough for lawyers to be familiar with only the law in their jurisdiction. This subject aims to develop a nuanced and sophisticated understanding of family law issues arising in many jurisdictions around the world, grounded in an Australian perspective. Based on a subject taught at the University of Cambridge, core areas of family law will be looked at in a comparative perspective that examines traditional statutory and judicial materials in the context of the specific legal, cultural and social traditions of each jurisdiction. Through this approach, the subject aims to encourage fresh insights on how we think about family law (including options for reform) as it operates in our ‘home’ jurisdictions, and to deepen our understanding, appreciation and working knowledge of family law as it operates elsewhere. The subject aims to leave students – including those not intending to practice in family law – better placed to identify relevant family law problems arising in national and international cases.

Principal topics include:

What is Comparative Family Law?

The relevance of gender in family law (particularly in relation to relationship recognition)

Contract Interpretation

The law of contract interpretation is one of the most practically important areas of commercial law. In recent years, interpretation disputes have come to dominate contract litigation. Because views can differ as to basic questions — such as whether particular words have a plain meaning, and what ‘commercial sense’ dictates in a given situation — the outcome of these cases is often difficult to predict. This subject will study the core principles of contract interpretation in Australian and English law. It will also examine the closely related principles concerning implied terms, rectification and estoppel by convention. Current issues and controversies will be considered. The common law approach to contract interpretation will be compared with those adopted in important international instruments such as the United Nations (UN) Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. The lecturer is a former commercial practitioner who has taught contract law for many years and has published widely on relevant topics.

This subject will examine the principles governing the interpretation of commercial contracts, and the closely related principles concerning implied terms, rectification and estoppel by convention.

Principal topics include:

The place of interpretation in the law of contract

The modern approach to interpretation

The core principles of interpretation

The availability and relevance of extrinsic evidence

The identification of implied terms

The equitable remedy of rectification

Estoppel by convention

A comparison between the common law principles of contract interpretation and those of international instruments such as the United Nations (UN) Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, the Unidroit Principles of International Commercial Contracts and the Principles of European Contract Law.

Contract Termination

Contract is central to the legal regulation of most commercial and economic activity, and underlies many specialist areas of legal practice. As market costs and values move, many contracts become increasingly valuable to one party and burdensome to the other. One party’s ability to terminate, or to successfully resist the termination of, a commercial contract is frequently a matter of considerable financial importance. The complex interaction between common law termination rights and rights to terminate expressly conferred by clauses in the contract in question is seldom properly understood, as illustrated by many of the cases from which this subject is taught.

This subject is taught from selected cases rather than textbooks. Principal topics include:

Breach of conditions, including what makes a promissory term a strict condition

Current Issues in Negligence

Negligence is one of the most heavily litigated causes of action in common law jurisdictions. It is of enormous practical importance in a very wide range of fact situations. It is also a dynamic area of law: the relevant principles are constantly being applied to new fact situations, and the courts are regularly forced to grapple with difficult questions about the scope of negligence liability. This subject examines key current issues and controversies in the law of negligence in the light of theoretical and comparative perspectives. The lecturers have both published widely on private law topics, including a range of issues in the law of negligence.

Principal topics include:

An overview of the law of negligence, including theoretical and historical perspectives and the place of negligence in tort law and private law

The duty of care requirement in general terms, including the distinction between duty in law and duty in fact, the approach to the duty question in novel situations and the role of public policy in duty decisions

Liability for psychiatric injury

Liability for pure economic loss

Liability for omissions

Liability of public authorities

Current issues in the standard of care and its application, with particular reference to professional negligence cases

The requirement of damage

Factual causation, including recovery for loss of a chanceScope of liability (legal causation and remoteness)

Global Commercial Contract Law

This subject provides an introduction to the global law relating to international commercial contracts. A major focus will be on contracts of sales, as codified by the Vienna Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG). However, some issues of the general law of contract will also be covered in detail (eg formation, interpretation, third party rights, the duty of good faith and fair dealing). The treatment of some of these topics will be based on an examination of the 2016 UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (PICC). The approach is comparative. Examples will be drawn from the decisions of national courts as well as arbitral awards.

International Trust Law

This subject is a study of trusts in an international context, beginning with the rise of the modern form of discretionary trust and the problems of holding trustees to account and controlling the exercise of their discretion. It explores how trusts are used in the 'offshore world', which allows for private purpose trusts and makes use of enforcers, protectors, and letters of wishes. It looks at how trusts are used, and misused, to protect assets from creditors, and how they are used in civil law jurisdictions.

It is suitable for those with common law or civil law backgrounds, whether they have studied trusts at an undergraduate level or not. Suggestions for some extra introductory reading will be provided for those who are new to trusts or wish to brush-up on basic trust concepts.

Remedies in Commercial Law

This subject examines the remedies commonly awarded in commercial litigation. All the major common law, equitable and statutory remedies will be covered, along with personal remedies, such as damages and proprietary remedies, such as the constructive trust. The strategic selection of remedies in commercial disputes will be considered and Australian law will be compared, where relevant, with the law of other major commercial law jurisdictions.

Principal topics include:

Damages in tort (excluding personal injuries) and for breach of contract, including issues of concurrency, where both tort and contract damages are available. Expectation and reliance damages and the protection of the ‘performance interest’ in contract. The role of liquidated damages clauses, and the penalties doctrine, will be considered, as well as the principles governing the award of exemplary and nominal damages.

Equitable compensation for breach of equitable obligations, including breach of fiduciary obligation. Statutory damages under the Chancery Amendment Act 1858 (Imp) and equivalent Australian legislation

Specific performance of contracts, with particular reference to the role of specific performance in common law and civil law jurisdictions

Injunctions, including a study of the interests protected in injunction litigation. Interlocutory orders, including Mareva orders, will be examined

The account of profits as a remedy for equitable wrongdoing, and debates about the availability of the account of profits as a remedy for breach of contract

Proprietary remedies, with particular reference to the distinction between institutional and remedial constructive trusts

A comparison of the role of the constructive trust, in commercial litigation, in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Sports Law

NameCredit points

eSports and the Law12.5

eSports and the Law

eSports refers to competitive video gaming, often in the form of professional events (league competitions, tournaments, championships or battle/match) and typically between sponsored gamers or teams. In the past decade, eSports’s business model has developed rapidly from one initially based on individual game publishers to the contemporary multi-stakeholder industry that is projected to have revenues of Aus$2 billion in 2022 and a fan base on over a 1 billion in the same year. eSports leagues and franchises are now aligned with leading global sports entities such as the NBA and FIFA and it is in line to be included in future Olympic Games. This rapid growth and investment from traditional sports has not always been accompanied by adequate governance structures or legal protections for investors, sponsors or players. Being the first of its kind and delivered by experts in the industry and in sports law, the subject reviews the legal challenges and opportunities ahead for eSports as an innovative and important revenue stream of the sports industry domestically and abroad.

This subject provides a critical examination of the development and current scope of eSports as an industry and with respect to its current and future governance and legal obligations both domestically and globally as informed by a comparative approach.

Sports Integrity and Investigations

Sport is renowned for embodying some of the highest and most inspiring of human ideals. Few other pursuits activate the passion with which sport is played and followed. For many people, sport delivers release from the shady aspects of life. This shining image is threatened by corrupt practices around doping, match-fixing and other activities; some with links to illegal gambling and organised crime. Also, the holding of public inquiries into questionable incidents and behaviour occurring in the context of sport can have an adverse impact.

Sport bodies and governments around the world are taking legal and regulatory steps to counter these threats. This subject will explore the new frontier of sports law, from criminal laws to mandatory information sharing and monitoring arrangements, and onto the establishment and processes of inquiries. With an understanding of the international legal order around ‘integrity’ and sports investigations, students will be well-placed to contribute to this emerging field both practically and academically.

Between them, the lecturers have extensive knowledge and industry experience in sports law, anti-doping, investigations and governance.

Principal topics include at both national and international levels:

Nature and meaning of integrity in sports competition and governance including historical and empirical perspectives

The criminalisation of the manipulation of sporting outcomes

The legal regulation of gambling on sport and its relationship to integrity

Sports Law: Entities and Governance

This century has witnessed much controversy concerning the governance of sport. Good governance and legal structures are seen by many astute observers as key elements in sporting success. From grassroots to the highest echelons, the governance of sport is a central practical issue and fascinating field of study. The law has struggled to meet the needs of community groups looking for effective but simple structures and governance models to propel sports participation and social connection, while successful professional sports leagues have searched for models that respond to their peculiar combination of sporting competition and economic cooperation. In the face of intensifying legal and public scrutiny, sports governing entities and regulators strive to implement good governance principles, structures and practices at the local, national and international levels of sport. This subject explores the legal aspects of these issues.

The lecturers bring an unrivalled combination of knowledge and experience in this area, encompassing leadership of major sports organisations, corporate and sports law practice, and published research on the business models of clubs, leagues and related sports law issues.

Principal topics include:

Overview of the organisational structures of Australian and international sport, encompassing clubs, regional and national governing bodies, professional leagues and tours, government authorities, special-interest groups, international federations and Olympic and Commonwealth Games organisations

Legal status of sports entities, including the legal personality and capacity of unincorporated clubs, incorporated associations and companies limited by guarantee, the meaning and consequences of trading activity and non-profit status and taxation

Legal regulation and corporate governance of sports entities, including the role and obligations of directors, officers and committee members of sports entities

The policy, regulatory and funding roles of the Australian Sports Commission

The legal and governance structures, and underlying economic principles, of professional sports leagues and other competitions

Sports entities and the legal process, including the sources and limits of legal authority over members, jurisdiction of domestic courts over international federations, leagues and tours, arbitration agreements and ouster of jurisdiction

Stakeholder rights and interests, incorporating a broad legal and policy analysis of issues of accountability, transparency and due process in the relationships between sports entities at various levels, government, financial supporters, elite and non-elite participants and fans.

Sports Medical and Anti-Doping Law

With attention often focused on the legal side of commercial dealings and related disputes in sport, the law‘s role regarding the basic building block of sport – the human body – can be overlooked. Employing an interdisciplinary approach, this subject will explore the legal and ethical aspects of the medical treatment of elite athletes and the important field of anti-doping. Medico-legal approaches to past and present controversies, including participation of disabled and pregnant athletes, concussion, infectious diseases and single-sex sports will be investigated in case studies sure to interest and challenge.

This subject is for medical professionals working in sport and for sports administrators and legal counsel responsible for day-to-day operational issues, especially anti-doping. The lecturers are two internationally eminent sports medicine practitioners and a legal expert in the field.

This subject considers selected topics from the medico-legal aspects of sports and anti-doping. The primary focus will be upon analysing the legal relationship between the sports medicine professional and the athlete-patient, especially in the context of team sports, where responsibilities are divided between athlete and team. It will incorporate selective study of a number of legal disciplines, including negligence, confidentiality, anti-discrimination law and anti-doping law.

Principal topics include:

Responsibility for injury in the practice of sports medicine

Sports participation with injury or disability

Working with other health professionals in the ‘sports medicine team‘

Boxing

Concussion

Infectious diseases in sport

Performance-enhancing drugs with an emphasis on the medico/legal interface

Tax

NameCredit points

Capital Gains Tax: Problems in Practice12.5

Capital Gains Tax: Problems in Practice

This core tax subject examines the law, policy and structural features of capital gains tax (CGT) in Australia and considers and applies CGT rules in a number of different private and business contexts. The subject examines the operation of CGT in detail in the context of the treatment of information and goodwill, earn-outs, the application of CGT to non-residents, in relation to real estate transactions, litigation and the use of trusts and deceased estates.

Principal topics include:

Structure of the capital gains tax system and its interaction with other tax provisions

Selected CGT Events and their key concepts

The CGT treatment of information and goodwill

The CGT treatment of earn-outs

The application of CGT to non-residents

CGT and business structures, restructuring, available rollovers and the small business CGT concessions

Capital gains tax problems in conveyancing and real estate development

Comparative Corporate Tax

Globalisation is driving corporate tax systems closer together and often into conflict. For many tax practitioners, it is now not enough to know their own corporate tax system—they must grapple with and question the operation of other corporate tax systems. This subject seeks to develop an ability to understand and analyse any corporate tax system and assess its impact on corporate decision-making. With a dedicated textbook (written by the presenter), this subject compares a number of influential and archetypal corporate tax systems (both common law and civil law) and assesses their behaviour in the context of practical problems. For tax professionals, this subject develops an ability to ask direct and informed questions about a foreign corporate tax system and discuss that system at a high level with foreign tax professionals.

This subject will compare and analyse income tax law in selected countries (Australia, Germany, the US and the UK) and consider how these laws interface with corporate law. Other jurisdictions may also be covered briefly during the course and students are permitted to cover other countries in their research paper.

Comparative International Tax

This subject will provide a detailed comparative analysis of the principal topics in international taxation. The core principles of international income tax will be examined, with the different approaches taken by nations (developed, emerging, and developing countries) outlined and critiqued. The compatibility of international tax systems in dealing with international transactions will be examined, and key areas of mismatch and overlap identified. The ongoing reform of international tax rules under the O.E.C.D. Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project will be considered. This subject will equip students to analyse international tax issues using a comparative approach and to acquire a deep understanding of the underlying structural, institutional, and policy influences that have shaped international income tax systems. This knowledge is directly applicable to analysing international tax problems in any particular country.

Principal topics include:

Jurisdiction to tax (residence and source)

Taxation of foreign income of residents, including elimination of double taxation

Corporate Tax A

This core tax subject examines the policies, detailed rules and current practical problems involved in the taxation of companies and shareholders in Australia, particularly at shareholder level. The lecturers are leading practitioners and they will consider the tax rules that apply to shares, corporate distributions, Australia‘s imputation system, the debt-equity integrity rules and the hybrid entity rules.

Syllabus

This subject consists of a detailed examination of the tax rules applied to companies and shareholders in a domestic setting in Australia, with a focus on issues at the shareholder level.

Principal topics include:

The policy and problems of taxing companies and shareholders

Tax treatment of contributions of share capital and assets to a company

Corporate Tax B

This advanced corporate tax subject provides an in-depth analysis of the tax rules for Australia‘s largest public and private consolidated corporate groups, and the rules for use of losses by companies and corporate groups. It includes detailed discussion of the latest reforms in these highly technical areas of corporate tax practice, in light of tax policy applicable to companies and consolidated groups operating in Australia today. This subject is co-taught by experienced lecturers who combine academic and practitioner experience to deliver this advanced and commercially essential subject.

Principal topics include:

The rules for membership and formation of a consolidated group in Part 3-90 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (Cth)

Operation of a consolidated group through normal trading operations, including the single entity rule, treatment of assets and liabilities, tax payment obligations, tax-sharing agreements and the company shareholder imputation system for consolidated groups

Tax cost setting on joining and leaving of subsidiary members of a consolidated group, including group-to-group transactions

Current Issues in International Tax

In today’s global, digital era, international tax is vitally important, and the environment is changing rapidly. Tax issues on diverse topics of cross-border work, consumption, deals and investments are important for taxpayers ranging from individuals to multinational corporations. Governments are increasingly cooperating on tax collection and enforcement, but spill overs from unilateral tax changes of some countries may dramatically affect other countries. Meanwhile, tax competition continues. Tax havens are being brought into the global net and anti-abuse rules are strengthened, yet low tax jurisdictions remain significant for international tax policy. This subject is led by international tax experts and brings academia, government and the profession together to explore the latest trends in international tax and implications for Australia and the world.

The subject will address the latest developments in tax practice and theory on a range of topics such as:

International tax principles: are residence and source still relevant?

OECD-G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting measures

Anti-abuse rules in a global digital era

Multilateral and bilateral cooperation: Is multilateralism the way of the future and how important are bilateral tax treaties?

Transnational tax administration and taxpayer rights

Processes and players in international tax reform

Future design of international tax rules for corporate, individual and consumption taxes in a global digital context.

Foundations of Tax Law

This core tax subject examines the fundamentals of taxation, with a focus on Australia’s most important tax: the personal income tax. It engages with the tax law that is most relevant to legal and tax practice for individuals and businesses.

This subject equips students to interpret statutory tax rules and apply judicial approaches, and to understand the policy and implications of tax reform in this fast-changing and challenging area of law. Foundations of Tax Law is a required subject for international tax students and is recommended for all masters students who have had little previous study or experience in tax law and wish to gain a solid grounding in the area

Principal topics include:

Overview of federal and state taxes in Australia, how tax laws are made, sources of tax law, tax policy and design principles and reform

The structure of the income tax, concept of income and tax rates

Income tax law, including calculation of taxable income; definition of income from services, property and business, capital gains, deductions and treatment of business and investment assets

Goods and Services Tax Principles

This core tax subject will examine Australia’s Goods and Services Tax (GST). The subject identifies the core legislative features in Australia’s GST contained in the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999.

The subject includes:

reference to the value-added tax systems in other jurisdictions such as the European Union, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Singapore; and

analysis of rulings and cases that are relevant to the operation of, and compliance with, Australia’s GST in practice.

Principal topics include:

Introduction to the GST: the objectives of a tax on household consumption expenditure and the design features and legislative scheme of Australia’s GST

GST’s ‘basic rules’ and the legislative building blocks contained in the GST law: the taxable person, consumption expenditure, tax value, registration, jurisdictional scope, supplies to and from offshore, exemptions, the destination principle (exports and imports) and input tax relief.

A legislative overview of the Australian GST treatment of the “difficult to tax” issues: real property and financial services.

International Tax: Principles, Structure

This core international tax subject is of central importance given Australia’s ever-growing role in the global economy. This subject covers the fundamental international income tax rules that apply where income or capital gains are derived in circumstances that have a connection with Australia. It considers Australia’s tax jurisdiction of residence and source, and relief from double taxation under domestic law and tax treaties. It also examines measures to prevent tax avoidance, such as controlled foreign company measures and transfer pricing.

This subject is designed to explore in detail the fundamental principles of Australia’s international taxation regime. The subject will examine both the issues of tax design and policy, and the relevant provisions in the legislation, cases and rulings.

Principal topics include:

Principles of international taxation

Rules for determining residence and source

Domestic rules for the taxation of residents’ foreign income (foreign income tax offsets, accruals taxation of foreign income and exemption of foreign income)

Domestic rules for the taxation of non-residents’ Australian source income (business income, interest, dividends and royalties)

Not-for-Profits, Law and the State

Not-for-Profits, the law and the state is a hot topic. As the government retreats from the direct provision of social welfare and public goods, and as not-for-profits seek as never before to integrate commerce and advocacy with their traditional purposes, much attention is being focused on not-for-profit law. These profound developments also suggest that not-for-profit law is becoming as important to contemporary societies as corporations law or administrative law. In this subject, we will look in depth at the key elements of this critical body of law and on the relationship between the state and the not-for-profit sector. We will reflect on important questions raised by not-for-profit law in its contemporary setting, questions relating to the definition of charity, the taxation of not-for-profits, and not-for-profit regulation. We will adopt comparative, theoretical and practical perspectives in working through these questions. The subject will be taught by two of Australia’s leading not-for-profit law experts.

The legal definition of charity in Australia and other analogous jurisdictions

The public benefit test and recent developments in the law of public benefit in Australia and abroad

The extent to which not-for-profits can undertake for-profit activities and member benefit arrangements

The treatment of religion in charity law

The treatment of political advocacy in charity law

The tax treatment of not-for-profits from a critical perspective

Not-for-profits and discrimination on grounds like race, religion and sex

A comparative examination of the regulation of the not-for-profit sector.

Tax Administration

Effective tax administration is fundamental to achieving tax policy goals. This subject examines the practical issues that arise in the administration of the Australian tax system and tax administration generally. The sessions will explore in depth the administrative role of the Federal Commissioner of Taxation (FCT) in Australia's tax regime, the FCT's general powers and the interaction of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) with taxpayers, tax professionals and other authorities and agencies. The subject will also include international comparisons as relevant.

The subject will be taught by the Inspector-General of Taxation, Ali Noroozi.

Principal topics include:

Tax administration under a self-assessment regime

The FCT's general powers of administration

The FCT's remedial powers

The structure of the ATO, including the corporate governance regime and internal checks and balances

The interaction of the FCT and the ATO with the tax profession and the role of the Tax Practitioners Board

The ATO's interaction with taxpayers

External scrutiny of the ATO by government and other agencies and authorities

The ATO's role in tax policy advice and law design

The ATO's interaction with other Australian government agencies

The ATO's interaction with international agencies such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Tax Avoidance and Planning

This subject examines both general and specific anti-avoidance provisions in Australia and in comparable jurisdictions. The subject will examine in detail the provisions of Part IVA of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth), as well as its Goods and Services Tax (GST) equivalent, and consider the differences between permissible tax planning and impermissible tax avoidance.

Tax in Practice

Today’s tax professional requires a combination of technical tax expertise and a deep understanding of the practical aspects of providing tax advice. This subject will be presented in a panel style and cover the latest developments in the essential practical skills required by employers in the tax profession.

The emphasis of this subject will be on equipping you with the practical aspects of dealing with the day to day issues you will encounter as a tax practitioner. You will learn how to draft clear, concise and effective advice and the importance of managing tax risk. The subject will also arm you with the skills required to draft ruling applications and objections and understand your legal obligations as a tax adviser.

The subject will be presented by leading silks, partners and tax practitioners. It presents a unique opportunity to benefit from their extensive experience.

Principal topics include:

Negotiating with revenue authorities during audit, dispute and litigation

Understanding the various forms of advice provided by the Australian Taxation Office

The operation of legal professional privilege in the taxation environment

Tax Policy

All countries face the challenge of ensuring their tax systems are able to support effective governments in the global era of increasingly mobile capital and labour, and to establish effective, fair, simple and sustainable tax systems for the future. Australia has undergone a number of major tax reform exercises over recent decades and there is an ongoing public debate in Australia, as in other countries, about how to keep the tax system relevant in a changing international economy.

This subject engages with the fundamental fiscal policy issues of today for all levels of government. It will analyse the major tax bases available for governments, the interactions of tax law with the transfer system, the challenge of environmentally sustainable taxes and issues of tax law design, complexity and administration for the future. The subject is taught by Paul Tilley, a former Australian Treasury official with a long history of tax reform in Australia.

Principal topics include:

Introduction to macroeconomics and fiscal policy

Introduction to microeconomics and resource allocation policy

Principles, objectives and main concepts in tax policy formulation

The social, economic and historical – political contexts of tax policy formulation in Australia

Major issues in tax reform in Australia, including in relation to fiscal policy and revenue adequacy, the major tax bases at each level of government, interactions within the tax-transfer system and issues of tax policy design cost, complexity and administration.

Tax Treaties

Globally, countries have negotiated more than 3,000 bilateral tax treaties and the number of treaties continues to grow. Tax Treaties provides an in-depth examination of international tax treaties, regarding both inbound and outbound investment. This subject uses the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Model Treaty and Commentary and examines important tax treaties of Australia and its major trading partners.

Associate Professor Michael Kobetsky has advised the United Nations (UN) and country governments on these issues. This lively, engaging and relevant subject equips students to deal with the most topical and advanced issues of international tax in the application and interpretation of tax treaties, including the meaning of permanent establishment and taxation of business profits, residence and source, the treatment of investment income, exchange of information and avoidance of double taxation.

Principal topics include:

The role of tax treaties in preventing double taxation and tax avoidance

Tax of Business and Investment Income

This core tax subject is designed to explore in detail the fundamental principles of income tax, fringe benefits tax and capital gains tax in relation to business and investment. It will provide the requisite skills and knowledge to identify and better deal with income tax problems that arise in practice and in other tax subjects. The lecturers are leading practitioners or academics with extensive experience in the field.

Principal topics include:

The structure of the Australian income tax system

The structure of the legislation, interaction mechanisms and derivation

Taxation of Small and Medium Enterprises

Small and medium business enterprises including high net worth families operating through groups of private companies, trusts and partnerships must deal with some of the most complex and challenging rules in the tax system, and face a high tax compliance and planning burden. This subject is aimed at tax professionals in general or those in specialist tax practice advising SMEs and high-wealth families. It equips participants with an advanced knowledge of tax rules and latest reforms for SMEs and high net worth families, integrating the technical law that participants learn in other subjects, including corporate tax, tax of trusts, capital gains tax and taxation of business and investment income. This subject involves consideration of complex and competing principles from numerous parts of the tax and other laws including indirect taxes, asset protection and estate and succession planning. It builds on the core content of other subjects, including Taxation of Business and Investment Income, Capital Gains Tax, Corporate Tax A, Taxation of Trusts and State Taxes. As a result, this subject may be best studied towards the end of your tax course.

This advanced subject is co-taught by leading practitioners with many years of experience advising the Australian SME and high net wealth families sector. They deliver an advanced, commercially essential subject through application of the tax law to topical case studies.

Principal topics include:

Income tax and capital gains tax rules applicable to trusts, private companies and partnerships, when establishing a new business or making investments, its operation and ultimate sale, winding up or business succession

Tax issues for private companies and shareholders, including Div 7A of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth)

Tax issues relating to remuneration by and financing of SMEs

Tax concessions for SMEs, in particular the capital gains tax small business concessions

Taxation of Trusts

This core tax subject will examine in depth the Australian income tax rules applicable to trusts, including significant new and ongoing reforms and policy developments. It will apply these rules to the range of applications of trusts, including private trusts such as unit trusts, family discretionary trusts, public managed investment funds, real estate investment trusts, nominee trusts, and stapled structures used by large businesses.

Principal topics include:

Definition and types of trust at law and for tax purposes and framework of trust tax rules

Trust distributions, beneficiaries and trustees, present entitlement, net income and flow-through of tax attributes, such as franking credits and capital gains

Transfer Pricing: Practice and Problems

International transfer pricing is the price charged for the cross-border transfer of assets or services between associated enterprises in a multinational enterprise group. Transfer pricing is consistently identified in international surveys of multinational enterprises as the most important tax issue they face. Multinational enterprises have to deal with demands from the various jurisdictions in which they operate as national tax agencies implement measures to protect their revenue from cross-border trade between associated entities.

This subject studies the Australian transfer pricing rules and their application. The Australian transfer pricing rules are based on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Transfer Pricing Guidelines. This subject is designed for tax advisers, in-house tax managers and government officials, as well as those practising in transfer pricing. A background in transfer pricing is not required.

Principal topics include:

OECD guidelines on transfer pricing

Australia’s tax legislation and tax rulings on transfer pricing

Australia’s tax treaties and transfer pricing

Case law

Transfer pricing methodologies—selection and application for the following transactions in respect of tangible goods, intangible assets, services and financial transactions

Other

NameCredit points

Management for Professionals12.5

Management for Professionals

This subject will provide students with an understanding of key concepts in the fields of strategy, leadership, marketing, human resources and IT management. It will provide students with the ability to contribute more effectively to management decision-making. The subject aims to give students a greater appreciation of the keys to business success. The mode of instruction will include case study analysis, guest speaker presentations and interactive lectures. This subject is ideal for those working in any professional services context including law and accounting firms, in-house legal teams or any other type of business advisory practice.